17. A Peek into My Middle School ELL classroom
Planning for middle school EL students is different from planning for just about any other class. You may have 20 students or just a few, and you will likely have a wide variety of different proficiency levels and students all at the same time. In my situation this school year, at least in middle school, I am teaching seventh and eighth grade students who span levels 1 through 4 on the WIDA language proficiency assessment. In this episode I will be sharing with you how I account for all...
19 Apr 202216min
16. A New EL Teacher's Perspective with Kennedy Merriam
So often we hear advice from educators who have been in the classroom, honing their craft for years. While their experience is valuable, I thought it would be refreshing to hear from an ESL teacher who is in the beginning stages of her career. Today, I chat with Kennedy Merriam, my student teacher this semester, who has been so open and creative during her time with me. She shares her own journey to finding ESL teaching and the reasons she is so passionate about this career. Kennedy is...
12 Apr 202238min
15. How to Teach Grammar to English Learners
Teachers are often puzzled when they approach teaching grammar for a couple of reasons. Particularly if they are native english speakers, they often don’t feel like they know formal grammar rules very well. They just know when a phrase or sentence “sounds right.” The other big struggle for teachers is not knowing what order makes sense to teach grammar rules to their students. But the bottom line is ESL students do need to learn grammar so that they have a framework, a safety net, to re...
5 Apr 202213min
14. Vocabulary for ESL Students
We all know that learning a new language requires vocabulary instruction, but what is the best approach? Which words should we teach? Which words are the most important? And how can we help students retain the academic vocabulary we teach them? I address these questions in today’s episode. Language learning is not an overnight process, and vocabulary teaching is ongoing whether you work with exclusively newcomers or have long-term English learners. It is said that it takes learning a word sev...
29 Mar 202220min
13. Teaching newcomers any time of year with Karen Emerson
In today’s episode, I am chatting with Karen Emerson, who is a friend and a fellow ELL teacher in the town that I live in. She works with the youngest English learners - grades K-1. I met Karen through one of our monthly state EL meetings, and we hit it off right away. I could sense her passion for working with English learners and her creativity in approaching teaching, especially newcomers! What and how to teach newcomers has been by far the most frequently asked question in my career. So w...
22 Mar 202251min
12. How to teach speaking effectively to ELL students with Carissa Ford
In today’s episode, I am chatting with my friend Carissa Ford about teaching speaking to our English learners. Speaking is such a personal aspect of language learning, and that is just one of the challenges our multilingual students face. Carissa and I dive into the best practices in teaching speaking from tasks to activities and lessons to projects. You’ll hear about the differences of teaching speaking to newcomer English learners and to long term English learners as well as tips for mainst...
15 Mar 202247min
#011 Radical self-care for teachers in times of crisis
In today’s episode, I wanted to talk about the mental and emotional health of teachers and processing emotions in difficult times. We always seek information and want to better our knowledge of how to support our English learners - and all students. But I wanted to honor teachers as humans and not just as vessels of knowledge that are expected to show up and perform no matter what. The war in Ukraine has brought up some raw emotions for many people around the world. In this episode, I w...
7 Mar 202222min
#010 - Three things you need to know when teaching SLIFE students
In today’s episode, I want to chat with you about a special group of students - those who have limited or interrupted formal education, otherwise known as SLIFE. Chances are many of us have encountered a student from this group at least once. And with everything that is going on in the world right now, we are likely to see more and more need to help these children that have found themselves in difficult situations due to no fault of their own. So today, I will share with you every...
1 Mar 202217min
