Teachers who work with English as a Second Language learners will find ESL/ESOL/ELL/EFL reading/writing skill-building children's books, stories, activities, ideas, strategies to help PreK-3, 4-8, and 9-12 students learn to read.
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The number of English language learners (ELLs) in American schools has more than doubled over the past 20 years. The articles in this section will give you lots of useful ideas for creating an environment that is welcoming and supportive for your ELLs and their families, and also encourages and facilitates learning.
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Teach Your Child About Letters
Children who know the letters of the alphabet before they go to kindergarten have a big advantage!
Starting at age three or four, children can usually play rhyming and other sound games. Being able to hear the different sounds in words is an important step for your child.
Even when your child is still a baby, there are things you can do to help him learn! The first three years of life are very important in developing your child's mind and abilities.
Fun Reading Tips and Activities
We'll make sure you never run out of fun reading activities to do with your child. Share these with other adults in your child's life - grandparents, babysitters, aunts/uncles, and friends!
Libraries have books, videos, music, newspapers, computers, and more. The most amazing thing is that you can use them all for free!
How to Let the School Know About Your Concerns
Is your child doing well in school? Is he or she having trouble learning, behaving, or studying? Is there a problem with another student, teacher, or administrator? If you have a concern, here are some steps to take.
Talk with Your Child's Teacher
Parents may be reluctant to approach their child's teacher. Here are some steps parents can take to develop a strong partnership with their child's teachers.
Your Rights as the Parent of a Public School Student
The law in the United States requires public schools to educate all students, no matter what their immigration status. Starting at age 5 or 6, children are legally required to attend school.
Helping Your Child Succeed At School
Your child will benefit greatly if the important adults in his or her life – family members and teachers – work together.
Fun and Effective Ways to Read With Children
Experts believe that reading to your child every day is one of the most important things parents can do.
Simple Ways To Encourage Learning
Here are some simple things you can do at home to help your child read, learn, and succeed.
But What If I Don't Know English?
If your Spanish is a lot better than your English, then speak, read, and sing to your child in Spanish.
Knowing two languages is a gift you can give your child. With encouragement from you, your child can become fluent in not just one language, but two!
Tips for Parents of Third Graders
Find ways to read, write, and tell stories together with your child. Always applaud your young reader and beginning story writer! The tips below offer some fun ways you can help your child become a happy and confident reader. Try a new tip each week. See what works best for your child.
Tips for Parents of Second Graders
Find ways to read, write, and tell stories together with your child. Always applaud your young reader and beginning story writer! These tips offer some fun ways you can help your child become a happy and confident reader. Try a new tip each week. See what works best for your child.
Tips for Parents of First Graders
Give your child lots of opportunities to read aloud. Inspire your young reader to practice every day! These tips offer some fun ways you can help your child become a happy and confident reader. Try a new tip each week. See what works best for your child.
Tips for Parents of Kindergartners
Play with letters, words, and sounds! Having fun with language helps your child learn to crack the code of reading. These tips offer some fun ways you can help your child become a happy and confident reader. Try a new tip each week. See what works best for your child.
Reading Tips for Parents of Preschoolers
Read early and read often. The early years are critical to developing a lifelong love of reading. It's never too early to begin reading to your child! The tips below offer some fun ways you can help your child become a happy and confident reader. Try a new tip each week. See what works best for your child.
Finding and Sharing Great Kids’ Books
Favorite stories get shared many times over. Here's some advice about how to find a good children's book and what to do once you're reading together.
Urgent but Overlooked: The Literacy Crisis Among Adolescent English Language Learners
English language learners represent more than 10% of the national pre-K through 12th grade enrollment. Also, over 70% of ELLs fail to develop strong literacy skills. To increase this group's educational, college, and job opportunities, policymakers must address the unique ELL literacy questions.
Time is Not on Our Side: Literacy and Literature for High School Language Learners
Given that teachers often have too much to teach and too little time, Dana Dusbiber suggests an alternative approach to teaching literature for secondary ELLs: the introduction of more multicultural literature in the classroom.
Increase Student Interaction with "Think-Pair-Shares" and "Circle Chats"
Peer interaction can play an important role in a student's language development. In order to increase opportunities in which students can interact, try some of the strategies listed in this article, including the "think-pair-share" and "circle chats."
Academic Language: Everyone's "Second" Language
Being able to speak English fluently does not guarantee that a student will be able to use language effectively in academic settings. Fluency must be combined with higher order thinking skills to create an "academic language," which allows students to effectively present their ideas in a way that others will take seriously. The author, an ELL teacher, describes her use of "protocols" (a cheat sheet of sentence starters) to build students' cognitive academic language proficiency.
Dads Who Are Making a Difference
In these selections from Dad's Playbook: Coaching Kids to Read, compiled by the National Institute for Literacy, a couple of dads share some of the ways that they are helping their kids become better readers.
Don't forget to add non-fiction books to your reading routine! Kids can follow their own interests and learn about the world around them by reading about bugs, dinosaurs, or outer space. You can also use the information in books to do activities at home – make green eggs and ham like Sam I Am, or a newspaper hat like Curious George!
Oral Language: Expanding Your Child's Vocabulary
Talking to your child helps expand vocabulary, develop background knowledge, and inspire a curiosity about the world – all of which help with learning to read! Here are some simple activities you can do at home to get your child ready to read.
The Next Step: Assessment and the English Language Learner
A new battery of assessments, which are steeped in academic rather than conversational English, give a clearer picture of students' proficiency, and because the tests are aligned to state standards, they'll also help teachers tailor classroom instruction to each child's needs.
Screening, Diagnosing and Progress Monitoring for Fluency
Early and frequent screening can go a long way in preventing reading difficulties. Fluency norms for grades 1-8 are listed here, as well as details on how to find and fix problems to keep kids on track for reading success.
Suggestions: Working with ESL Students Who Have Special Needs in Reading
Teachers are in a unique position to create positive attitudes in English language learners. These suggested children's texts can help ELLs open up about the struggles, ambivalence, and rewards of learning a second language.
10 Things Mainstream Teachers Can Do Today
These ten simple tips can help make school more welcoming and more successful for the English language learners in your class.
Language acquisition is an everyday and yet magical feat of childhood. This article addresses the truth - and the myths - around learning two languages in childhood, and sets the record straight!
The basic rule is, “Don’t do the assignments yourself.” It’s not your homework—it’s your child’s. “I’ve had kids hand in homework that’s in their parents’ handwriting,” one eighth-grade teacher complains. Doing assignments for your child won’t help him understand and use information. And it won’t help him become confident in his own abilities. Here are some ways that you can provide guidance without taking over your child’s homework.
Resources for Helping Your Child with Homework
Books, magazines and programs are mentioned in this booklet as examples and are only a few of many appropriate resources. Listing of materials and resources in this book should not be construed or interpreted as an endorsement by the Department of any private organization or business listed herein.
Checklist for Helping Your Child With Homework
How to Help: Talk with Teachers to Resolve Problems
Homework problems often can be avoided when families and caregivers value, monitor and guide their children’s work on assignments. Sometimes, however, helping in these ways is not enough. If you have problems, here are some suggestions for how to deal with them.
Helping Your Child With Homework
This publication has been adapted from the United States Department of Education’s “Helping Your Child” series. You can see the full report at the Department’s website. This publication was originally written by Nancy Paulu, with updates for the current edition completed by Fran Lehr and Marina Balentine Walne.
Children pick up languages much more easily than adults. This article answers some common questions about raising bilingual children.
What's 'Normal,' What's Not: Acquiring English as a Second Language
How can you tell when a student has a language-learning disability and when he or she is merely in the normal process of acquiring a second language?
High-Achieving Middle Schools for Latino Students in Poverty
What are the characteristics of middle schools in which Latino students from low-income families make substantial achievement gains?
Encourage Responsibility, Independence, and Active Learning
Taking responsibility, working independently, and engaging in active learning are important qualities for school success. Here are some suggestions for helping your child to develop these qualities.
Language for School Success: Talking with Your Child
This checklist can help to guide parents as they prepare their children for school. It includes milestones for good health, social and emotional preparation, and language and general knowledge.
Creating a library of your child's books is a great way to show her how important reading is. It will also give her a special place to keep her books and will motivate her to keep pulling books from her own library to read. Here are some ideas for getting started!
Five Free and Easy Tips for Summer Learning: Research Pointers and What You Can Do
Research about how much children lose ground over the summer is well documented, but kids don't have to lose ground over the summer. In fact, you can encourage your child to have a summer of fun and learning with these five free and easy things to do.
Moony Luna/Luna, Lunita Lunera – Reading Activities
Moony Luna is a bilingual book, set in a bilingual classroom, which makes it the perfect book to use for bilingual classroom activities.
Fostering Literacy Development in English Language Learners
Researcher Karen Ford offers some insight on how ELLs use their native language skills to learn to read and write in a second language, and how teachers can help facilitate the process.
What Parents Can Do: Reading Tips From Kids
Parents can make reading more motivating by letting children choose books and making reading a memorable family event. Find out what children themselves have to say about these guidelines for parents to increase motivation.
Juguemos con el lenguaje/The Joy of Talking With Young Children
Parents, child-care providers, and teachers can take ideas from this practical guide to language and literacy development for Spanish-speaking children, ages four to eight years old.
A Unified Model of Language-to-Literacy Intervention Approaches
This model introduces a variety of strategies for teachers and parents that: 1) help to identify the child with language-based emergent literacy problems, and 2) assists in the remediation of those problems.
Creating Culturally Responsive Classroom Environments
When students and teachers come from different cultural backgrounds, it can often lead to misunderstandings about behavior and performance. How can teachers create safe learning environments with a diverse group of students?
I'm a teacher in Pakistan. Today I visited this site for the first time. It really is worthy to read and helpful in making applications even to my classroom here in Pakistan. Thank you.
~ Sarah
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Colorín Colorado is a free web-based, bilingual service that provides information, activities, and advice for educators and Spanish-speaking families of English language learners (ELLs, also known as students of English as a second language).
Colorín Colorado is produced by Reading Rockets — an educational service of WETA, the flagship public broadcasting station in the nation's capital. Original artwork by Caldecott Award-winning illustrator David Diaz is used with permission.
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Colorín Colorado receives major funding from the American Federation of Teachers. Additional funding is provided by the National Institute for Literacy and the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs.
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