Teacher Discussion Forums

These are some ways to help a student "get it": Show pictures of what you are talking about Show realia, real objects when possible Act out what you are trying to convey Model your expectations (show acceptable and unacceptable behavior, show examples of corrrect and incorrect work or procedures) En...

I have 5 ELLs in my inclusion classroom; I'm very glad that they have each other to relate to and interact with. Fortunately, 4 of my ELLs speak the same native language. Sometimes, I ask the higher level English proficient students to translate what I am saying for the lower level English proficien...

The academic progress of students with limited English proficiency (LEP) is categorized as the LEP subgroup for No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) reporting. Currently, the progress of the students in this subgroup is being grossly misrepresented which is negatively impacting the reported adequate year...

The parents of my ELLs have not been active in our school or my classroom as yet. I understand that it would be difficult for them for a few reasons. The language barrier may make them uncomfortable, or they may feel that it would not help for them to interact if they do not comprehend what is happe...

In my school, most parents of ELLs speak very limited English. Something we found helpful is to have older ELLs who speak the same language come to parent-teacher conferences to translate between the teacher and the parent. Without a translator, I had one parent who said almost nothing until the end...

I teach in a New Jersey suburb in the United States. My students' native languages are Burmese, Spanish, and Tagalog. Where do you teach and what are the native languages of your students? Are any of your students refugees?

I teach a class with 16 native English speakers and 5 English language learners. I find my job very rewarding, and I am ecstatic that I am fortunate enough to learn from my students. I try to learn as much as I can about their cultures and encourage my students to tell the class about their cultural...

I teach first grade and recently taught my class the appropriate situations in which to use 'me' and 'I'. I have gotten some questions about which to use as they are writing in their journals. -ed questions also come up when using past tense. "I eated breakfast", or "he throwed the ball". My ELLs co...

Please tell about your experience with special needs ESL students. I would like to learn about determining if an ESL student has special needs. What are some signs that an ESL student is learning disabled? How do you modify lessons and content? What teaching/learning strategies or techniques have yo...

Think-pair-share is a great activity that can be used with any topic or content being learned. Group students in pairs, pose a question to the class, students ponder then discuss the answer in English with their partner, and then one or both partners share their answer with the class. Model what you...

Do you have policies or laws to follow regarding ESL? I am interested in learning about the current ESL education laws and policies in other countries and in states other than NJ in USA . Please inform us of what you know.
Gracias!

All language learners progress through certain stages of comprehension, language usage ability, and comfort level using a language. The first stage is a silent period. This link leads to research that has been done on the silent period of language aquisition. [color=indigo]http://journals.cambridge....