Estimated Reading Time: 4 mins, 20 seconds

In a recent webinar, we discussed how teachers and administrators can better support newcomer multilingual language learners as they transition to a new academic environment. We were honored to have three highly experienced current and former ELD educators with decades of classroom experience as our speakers:

David Noyes, NBCT

Head of Curriculum at Language Tree Online, National Board Certified ELD Educator, and former District ELD Coordinator at Long Beach Unified (California)

Estimated Reading Time: 4 mins, 20 seconds

Many educators are rightly frustrated with the high importance placed on standardized assessments. Relying solely on quantitative data from a single snapshot in time to assess growth doesn't seem fair. This also doesn't give teachers a complete picture of what their English learner students know, nor the depth of their language capabilities.

A better, more holistic approach is to triangulate quantitative and qualitative data gathered throughout the school year around student ...

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 ELs, one of my biggest struggles was collaborating effectively with my general education peers to help our mutual students reach these objectives. I've ...

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 (NCLB) period when state standardized testing was the clear priority. Teachers were pressed to focus on test-taking strategies for reading comprehension, writing essays, ...

Estimated Reading Time: 4 mins, 40 seconds

A Federal Program Monitoring (FPM) review is an essential aspect of education policy. It is designed to assess whether a local education agency meets the minimum requirements of a compliance category. Since English language learners (ELLs) are a category whose growth and achievement are closely tracked, districts and schools with high numbers of English language learners (ELLs) are more likely to be selected for an FPM review of their English learner ...

Estimated Reading Time: 3 mins, 5 seconds

The United States has long been a destination for immigrants seeking new opportunities and a better life. Among this group are middle and high-school-age newcomers. Older students face unique challenges adapting to a new country, culture, and educational system. For their newcomer students to thrive, educators must address their unique social-emotional development and English language acquisition needs.

Cultural Adjustment

Teenage newcomer students to America often face challenges in adapting to their ...

Estimated Reading Time: 4 mins, 5 seconds

Online programs for English language development (ELD) offer the benefits of providing English language learners with multi-sensory video, image, and audio support. Unlike textbooks, digital instructional tools enable students to hear and see language applied in situational contexts, ultimately improving listening and reading comprehension. 

However, a common fear about employing a digital ELD/ESOL curriculum in the classroom is that active participation goes away. English learners go into the dreaded "sit and learn" ...

Estimated Reading Time: 4 mins, 24 seconds

I started teaching in 1991. I was an ESL teacher and taught LEP (Limited English Proficient) students at the secondary level. Finding resources that were high interest, age- appropriate, and at a Lexile level for non-English speakers was pretty much impossible. My students ranged in age from 13 to 16 years old and most of the books out there that were simple enough for them to decode were about Bobby and ...

Estimated Reading Time: 2 mins, 36 seconds

According to the U.S. Department of Education (ED) and the Office of Civil Rights (OCR), school districts across the country have a legal obligation to provide meaningful and equitable support for their English learner (EL) populations. This federal mandate is passed down to the departments of education of each state.

For English learner department administrators and educators, it's critical to have a solid plan in place to meet federal and state ...

Estimated Reading Time: 5 mins, 54 seconds

In Part 1 of this blog, we examined the brain science behind multi-sensory learning approaches. Why is that important? Understanding how the brain works can help shape your pedagogical approaches in the classroom to make them much more effective. In addition, a new generation of hybrid instructional tools that embed multi-sensory techniques can assist teachers to engage students' brains like never before.

Here in Part 2, we will go over techniques ...

Estimated Reading Time: 3 mins, 21 seconds

We've never experienced a greater need for effective instructional tools for our English learners than right now. With administrative and teaching staff stretched to the max, it's critical that you have tools actually make a difference in helping English learners progress. To that end, we've created a two-part blog to show you how to effectively use online tools in the classroom during Designated ELD time. We'll cover:

• The importance ...
  
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Estimated Reading Time: 5 mins, 37 secs

As an educator, how are you supposed to teach about arguments and claims to students who don't understand or speak any English? Not only do these students not know English, but they don't seem to have had much formal education in their native country either. But yet, you're expected to teach to the rigor of the standard and have them analyze text they can neither read, nor understand.

Such is the ...

English learners coming into our public schools at the secondary grade levels face multiple challenges. First, they face a very short ramp to acquire the level of English language proficiency needed to succeed academically and to graduate. In addition, newcomers are in the process of acclimating to their new country, which also entails socialization into a new school environment.

As an educator who has worked with English learners for over two decades, it's a situation that's challenging for both ...