T.ELL.E-gram

This month's highlights

Featured Articles

Experts believe that reading to children every day is one of the most important things parents and teachers can do. Fun and Effective Ways to Read with Children has some great ideas for helping children develop essential literacy skills while keeping read-alouds fun!

When students first start school, they need to know key phrases and expressions in order to communicate with teachers and classmates during the school day. Oral Language Development for Beginners describes meaningful and fun interactions to help students develop the types of everyday communication skills that facilitate learning.

From AdLit.org: Building Background Knowledge

This summer, our sister site about adolescent literacy, AdLit.org, offers a number of articles for building and accessing background knowledge.

Summer Reading Suggestions

AdLit.org also offers some great reading suggestions from teachers and administrators for some more summer reading in August!

Research and Reports

Teaching English Language Learners: What the Research Does — and Does Not — Say, an excellent article by Dr. Claude Goldenberg of Stanford University in the latest issue of American Educator, offers a comprehensive summary of existing research on issues related to the education of ELLs. Goldenberg focuses on two major reviews of research, one by the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth, and the other by the Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence (CREDE). Topics covered include: bilingual education, oral language development, reading instruction, curriculum, instructional methods, assessment, and accommodations. This review is a must-read for anyone interested in ELL research. section for the latest reports and research-based recommendations on reaching, teaching, and assessing ELLs.

English language learners tend to be isolated in schools with low student achievement and low standardized test scores. The Role of Schools in the English Language Learner Achievement Gap, a new report by Rick Fry of the Pew Hispanic Center, describes the characteristics of these schools and discusses their ultimate impact on English language learners' academic achievement.

Correction: In our May newsletter, Colorín Colorado included a link to the report Effective Programs for English Language Learners (ELL) with Interrupted Formal Education,* but we omitted the source of the report. The author of the report is Olga Tuchman, and the report was written on behalf of the Office of English Language Learning & Migrant Education at the Indiana Department of Education. We regret the omission.

In the Classroom

Bright Ideas that Work

ELLs in Early Education: Recruiting Immigrant Families

This month's Bright Ideas article focuses on recruiting more families of English language learners to participate in early education programs. The article provides a brief overview of the some of the reasons that immigrant families are not enrolling their children in preschool at higher rates, and offers some tips for recruiting and supporting immigrant families in an early education setting.

New! Bilingual Tip Sheets for Parents of Babies and Toddlers

Colorin Colorado is pleased to announce the addition of new tip sheets for parents of babies and toddlers. The tip sheets offer ideas about reading together and early literacy activities, and are currently available in Spanish and English. Translations of these tip sheets in our other featured languages will be published on the website during the fall.

Frequently Asked Questions

Early childhood programs can give English language learners a good start toward academic success. If you're looking for resources for preschool programs, you may wish to explore the following:

• What resources are available for teachers of ELLs that are 2, 3, 4, and 5 years old? We have quite a variety of languages in our school?

Find the answers to these and many other Frequently Asked Questions about Teaching ELLs.

Beyond the Classroom

Book of the Month

Hello Ocean / Hola Mar
By Pam Muñoz Ryan

A child narrates her visit to the ocean, inviting readers to explore it with her. She experiences the sea with all of her senses through realistic illustrations and lyrical language in this gently rhyming tale. Bilingual edition available.

Colorín Colorado Review: IGUANA Magazine

IGUANA Magazine is a Spanish-language children's magazine published for kids ages 7 to 12. Each issue is filled with stories, games, puzzles, interviews with prominent Latinos, recipes, project ideas, jokes, articles and more! To learn more about the magazine, read Colorín Colorado's official review!

ELL Online Resource: ELL Outlook Newsletter

The ELL Outlook is a bi-monthly e-newsletter published by Course Crafters, Inc. dedicated to providing the latest research, news, information on effective program models, and interviews with ELL researchers, educators, and policymakers. The goal of this bi-monthly e-newsletter, published by Course Crafters since 2002, is to help school districts more successfully address the needs of the growing preK-12 ELL population across the country.

The articles in the ELL Outlook have received kudos for being both research-based and immensely practical for teachers, and many of these articles have been used by districts for professional development. To get your free subscription to The ELL Outlook, sign up today!

In a Word: Early Childhood English Language Learner (ECELL)

This month's glossary term is commonly used to refer to a child who is between the ages of zero to five (early stages of development), and whose native language is not English, but is in the process of learning English as a second language.

About the Colorín Colorado T·ELL·E-GRAM and ColorinColorado.org

The ¡Colorín Colorado T·ELL·E-GRAM is a free monthly electronic newsletter from ColorinColorado.org, created and sustained thanks to support from the American Federation of Teachers.

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We've made a few changes to ColorinColorado.org and this newsletter. What do you think? Do you have comments, questions, suggestions, or contributions? Contact us and let us know.

We look forward to hearing from you!

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