A cornerstone for teaching vocabulary is making sure students understand the “shades of meaning” for verbs and adjectives. Starting in Kindergarten, students are expected to be able to discern the subtle differences in meaning between closely related verbs and adjectives. Think, how is “glare” different from “stare”? I teach in a high ESL population so this standard is a challenge for my students who have a limited vocabulary. SOOOOO…I really
Trying to find a fun method to teach vocabulary for kids? How can you teach ESL vocabulary to kids? Read on for a fun English vocabulary activity you'll love...
Reading sight words are a crucial component of any K-2 curriculum plan, but when it comes to teaching ESL kids the fundamentals that can be puzzling! This post will outline some easy ways incorporate Memory Games Printables into your lesson lans to enhance sight word learning.
Teaching students the concept of summarizing in reading or any subject matter can be packed full of unrelated details. Check out this idea!
Learn Creative ESL Teaching Notes and Ideas.
Do you need some interactive listening videos for your ESL students? I've collected these videos from numerous Online Listening Websites for ESL Kids sources and I though I'd share them in this post.
Feeling overwhelmed by organization? I can help with so many easy ways to get organized with calendars, color-coding, checklists, digital tools…
Reading sight words are a crucial component of any K-2 curriculum plan, but when it comes to teaching ESL kids the fundamentals that can be puzzling! This post will outline some easy ways incorporate Memory Games Printables into your lesson lans to enhance sight word learning.
As you have probably noticed with your ELLs, there is quite a difference in an ELLs' conversational vocabulary compared to their academic vocabulary. According to Jim Cummins (1984), BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills) refers to
How the Harkness Method works when using ELL teaching strategies. Teaching ELLs to read critically through collaborative discussions.
These awesome ideas will come in handy one day. Or more than once. Who knows - you might even end up using them all with your class! This is a high quality print-friendly poster that you ca
Are you struggling to make content area instruction accessible to your ELLs? Here are five tips to help your ELLs be successful in your content area classroom. Any teacher that has had a beginning ELL student in
Learn some ideas for supporting IEP and ESL students in the middle school classroom.
Entering a brand-new classroom is nerve-wracking for most of our English speaking students. For our newcomer ELLs, it can be a very intense and scary experience. Providing them with a welcoming, thoughtful environment from the moment
Diverse books are a vital part of any classroom. This is especially true when there are English Language Learners in the room. Students need access to books that have characters that look like them and come from similar backgrounds to them. They also need to read about places and characters that are different from them.
Over the past few years, I have struggled and struggled with my students on their innate desire to stand up at the end of class. I would make an almost daily reminder that they need to stay in their seats until the bell rings. I would get frustrated that just as it seemed that the procedure would […]
9 Tips to Support English-Language Learners
Learn strategies for teaching context clues to English Language Learners. Plus get a free set of context clue task cards.
Happy Friday!!Here in South Jersey, were are eagerly awaiting snowageddon!! Blizzard + coastal flooding + four kids under the age of 7 stuck inside all weekend = CRAZINESS!!Anyway, before we lose power to the snowpocalypse, I wanted
Teachers like vocabulary strategies that make learning more meaningful and lasting. Check out these 15 Strategies to Ramp Up Vocabulary Instruction.
One of the first things I am asked when I tell people I am an English as a second language teacher is, “What languages do you speak?” Though it might make my high school French t
If you've ever heard a guy stop in the middle of an explanation and say, "Hold on, let me draw you a picture," that dude is fixing to serve you a heaping plate of nonlinguistic representation.
A scavenger hunt with is a fun and engaging way to help English Language Learners. They are a great way to help students learn new vocabulary.
As a reader, I have used most, if not all of the reading comprehension strategies I'm about to discuss throughout my years as a student, as I'm sure all of you have. As a teacher, I have guided students through using these strategies during whole-class reading units. Until last week…
Welcome to our teaching community, serving teachers in grades 2-6 with engaging resources that challenge your students to reach their peak potential and inspire your love of teaching.
Instead of focusing on the deficits of English language learners, what if we held up their cultures, languages, unique skills, and life experiences as assets?
How to Prepare ELLs for Language Testing Each year ELLs take an annual language assessment. In many states, this is WIDA ACCESS. I am not an advocate of extensive test preparation, but I think that students should be exposed to the language of a test beforehand to be better prepared. WIDA has some tips on
Speaking and listening skills need to be explicitly taught and students need time to practice these skills with intentionality.
Looking for 5th grade anchor charts? Try some of these anchor charts in your classroom to promote visual learning with your students.
Fun and engaging ideas to get to know your students at the beginning of the school year. Build a strong classroom community with these free resources.
Who says grammar has to be boring?! This post shares easy ways to teach grammar that boost engagement and achieve results. These ideas for teaching grammar can be fun for students and low-prep for teachers! GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED--Be sure to sign up for my email newsletter to get first dibs on giveaways, contests, and exclusive
This is an article with great information on teaching reading strategies to primary students. Goal setting, reading strategy groups, guided reading, and more! FREE reading strategy bookmarks to use during individual conferences.
Teaching questioning to primary readers can be challenging. I recently released a new edition of Concrete Comprehension for Primary Readers:
Having a strong vocabulary and a solid understanding of grammar will make students better readers and writers. This #2ndaryELA Twitter chat was all about vocabulary and grammar instruction. Middle school and high school English Language Arts teachers discussed how to integrate grammar into the rest of your curriculum and make lessons less boring. Teachers also shared .their approach to teach vocabulary and fun practice activities. Read through the chat for ideas to implement in your own classroom.
Character traits is an important skill to help students understand characters. This post shares strategies and free character trait activities.
Looking for a strategy to help students solve math word problems? Check out this post. Included you will find 2 FREE math problem solving templates and Steps to Problem Solving.
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Language stems, thinking stems, sentence starters…there are a lot of different names for this incredible teaching strategy! When I am planning for the needs of my ESL students, I think of them as language stems. When I am planning how to make my students thinking go one step further, I call them thinking stems. To my students, I call them our “Super Sentence Starters”. When I created my fifth
I am shy.Yep, it’s a part of me that I feel like is so obvious when you are around me in person. I feel my cheeks warm up and heart racing when talking to new people. So much of that shyness is internal. I say this because I have had people tell me they would never describe me as shy. That’s me covering up a lot of my weird nervousness
As much as I love to read, sometimes I dreaded teaching reading. I was reading by four and everything in language arts came easily to me - it just clicked. When I had students that didn't improve their reading with my strategies, I didn't understand why. Now that I am working with my son, I am un
