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.
Books for Adults
The following are recommended books for parents and educators. This list is by no means exhaustive, but is intended to provide you with a starting point for increasing your knowledge. The links are to Amazon.com where you can find more information about each book.

Volunteer tutors can make a tremendous difference in the reading skills and the lives of young children. This comprehensive tutorial manual has been developed from the Book Buddies program of Charlottesville, Virginia, the first large-scale model to mobilize hundreds of community volunteers in an alternative one-on-one intervention for children at risk for reading failure.

This book provides readers with many strategies for working with a diverse classroom. Teachers will learn how to plan strategically to meet the needs of the wide variety of students in today’s highly diverse classroom. Presented in an easy-to-use format, practical techniques and processes are shared that can be used to plan and adjust learning based on pre-assessment of individual students’ knowledge, skills, experience, preferences, and needs.

Accountability for English language learners is a critical issue for schools today. The number of identified ELLs in public schools grew 95% over the last decade, with more than 5 million school age ELLS identified. Administrators are demanding information about how they can ensure that the ELLs in their schools achieve. English Language Learners at School is a practical guide for administrators who must address this challenge now.

This book examines three important ELL issues: English reading instruction in an immersion setting, English language development, and cultural issues as they pertain to ELLs in and out of the classroom. Readers will discover new ways of looking at practice in the context of current English literacy instruction for ELLs, suggestions for why we need to examine our current practice, and recommendations for what we can do to change it. The authors emphasize the importance of cultural heritage and celebrate the variety of voices that our ELLs represent.

Today, many teachers struggle to communicate with Spanish speaking parents. This book helps teachers who speak no Spanish reach parents who speak only Spanish. Included in this text are 36 reproducible letters in both English and Spanish.

When do infants begin to learn? How do experts learn and how is this different from non-experts? What can teachers and schools do to help children learn most effectively? This book offers exciting new research about the mind and the brain that provides answers to a number of compelling questions.

In this book, readers can find a comprehensive history of bilingual education in the United States. This text investigates research on development of a second language and explores what we know about effective learning environments for these children.

A wonderful book for educators and students that celebrates the diversity in U.S. classrooms and fosters cultural awareness. Part 1 offers profiles of 20 young immigrants (ages 10 to 20-something) from Asia, Africa, Europe, and South America. Each profile includes the student's personal history and reasons for immigrating to the U.S., as well as background on his/her country of origin, including cultural traditions, political climate, and family values. Each profile is followed by discussion questions and suggestions for further research. Part 2 offers activities and resources across the broad themes of Cultures & Customs; Immigration & Citizenship; Stereotypes, Tolerance & Diversity; and Connecting the Classroom & Community. A useful guide is included to help educators determine the appropriateness of each activity for individual- , class-, or school-level use, or with PTAs, families, and other community groups. The readability of this title makes it a good option for middle- and high-school level character education units on citizenship and respecting differences.

This volume addresses the pressing reality in teacher education that all teachers need to be prepared to work effectively with linguistically and culturally diverse student populations. The literature on language education has typically been discussed in relation to preparing ESL or bilingual teachers, while the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students, including immigrants, refugees, language minority populations, African Americans, and deaf students, have been addressed separately. This volume emphasizes that these children have both common educational needs and needs that are culturally and linguistically specific, and is directed to the preparation of all teachers who work with culturally and linguistically diverse students. The chapters are presented in three sections: knowledge, practice, and policy.

Product Description: Literacy Assessment of Second Language Learners consists of articles written specifically for this book by national and international experts and teachers in the field of literacy/bilingual assessment. The authors include assessment instruments, such as grading rubrics and observation checklists; classroom vignettes at the beginning of each chapter that integrate theory and practice; and numerous pedagogical devices such as charts, graphs, and summaries to make the book easy to use for readers.

This text presents a series of activities and ideas for implementing a literature-based reading program. Theoretically supported exercises for grades K-8 are included, as well as universal activities applicable to books of all levels. In addition, the book discusses practical, decision-making guidelines for literature instruction.

A working knowledge of the Spanish language is an indispensable part of an educator’s skill set. This book gives readers more than 3,000 Spanish words and phrases and the basic grammar needed to use them properly and with confidence. Included vocabulary covers every aspect of a student’s school career, from kindergarten enrollment through high school graduation.

L. S. Vygotsky has long been recognized as a pioneer in developmental psychology. Carefully edited by a team of experts, this book presents a unique selection of Vygotsky's important essays, most of which have previously been unavailable in English. In this work, Vygotsky applies his theoretical framework to human development, focusing on its implications for education.

This Fourth Edition of Peregoy & Boyle's text continues the strengths of the third with its comprehensiveness and accessibility, providing a wealth of practical strategies for promoting literacy and language development in English language learners (K-12). Unlike many texts in this field, Reading, Writing and Learning In ESL takes a unique approach by exploring contemporary language acquisition theory as it relates to instruction and providing suggestions and methods for motivating and involving ELL students.

Communication with parents is necessary for student success. This book assists school personnel in communicating with guardians about student progress, discipline and achievement, among other areas. Ideas presented can be used anywhere, from report card comments to parent conferences.

"In addition to providing a rich foundation of instructional practices (Parallels in Language and Science Teaching), the editors offer effective teaching strategies and models for lesson development including standards and assessment frames. An excellent tool for classroom teachers, teacher educators, and resource teachers working with individual students or small groups." — Curriculum Connections, School Library Journal, Fall 2006

Approaching language details informally and with a minimum of classroom-style presentation, the author offers practical instruction in Spanish basics. The focus is on conversational Spanish for teachers and school administrators where Spanish is the first language for many students. Readers become familiar with words and phrases that relate directly to school situations. A glossary is also provided quick reference.

Want to learn practical informal Spanish? This book guides readers through a series of Spanish lessons, without focusing on the rules of grammar. This title is for people wishing to learn conversational Spanish, but don't the time to take a regular language course.

This book is the second level in an informal language instruction series, helping learners learners move beyond the fundamentals of the language and gain fluency in speaking and comprehending Spanish. Each chapter introduces a new verb tense and follows a unique vocabulary theme. A familiar character guides students through new material, making helpful comments and providing support.

Reading implies thinking and understanding, and teachers can help children develop strategies for comprehension. Children need to know how to make connections and ask questions, how to visualize and infer, how to extract important ideas and to synthesize information if they are to become fluent readers. Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis show how teachers can model these strategies by thinking aloud and coding the text, lifting text onto the overhead and reasoning through it in class discussions, and bringing in their own books to model how adults use these strategies.

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of bilingualism in the United States. The author begins with a review research and policy to characterize the education of bilingual students. From there, Garcia addresses issues relating to bilingualism in education, and identifies the characteristics of effective bilingual education programs.

This guide offers a broad overview and introduction to ELL instruction. Resources include graphic organizers, classroom strategies, and research summaries, as well as some California-specific material.

Written specifically for the general classroom teacher, this guide shows the effects of cultural differences on learning and presents an appreciation for cultural diversity and learning styles. This text offers tips and resources for adapting instruction and encouraging cultural appreciation throughout the school.

The newest edition of this helpful handbook presents a number of strategies for addressing daily challenges that both ESL and mainstream teachers face in the classroom, such as: How do I prepare for a new ESL student? How do I balance the needs of students at different reading levels? How do I manage difficult classroom behavior? A number of appendices and forms are included as well. An excerpt from the first chapter is available on the Portage & Main Press website.

Beginning with designing a classroom that welcomes students and creates appropriate conditions for learning, the authors go on to detail a workshop format for reading, writing and content-area studies. Oral language is emphasized in a continuum from teacher modeling to student-to-student communication. This book emphasizes that when children's attempts at communicating are accepted and celebrated, they will learn to communicate with each other comfortably and spontaneously wherever they may be.

One reality of today’s classrooms is the limited help available to teachers trying to support English learners’ literacy skills. This text follows the framework of the original Words Their Way program and applies the same principles to English language learners. Using this text, teachers determine what each student brings with them from their home languages, where their instruction in English orthography should begin, and how best to move each student through development.
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