T.ELL.E-gram

This month's highlights

New webcast! English Language Learners and Academic Language

Take a look at Colorín Colorado's new webcast, English Language Learners and Academic Language, featuring Dr. Robin Scarcella provides an overview of academic language instruction for English language learners, as well as a discussion of effective teaching strategies and a list of related resources.

Back-to-School Resources

Our back-to-school section for educators offers lots of great ideas for getting the school year off to a good start, and don't miss our updated back-to-school section for parents with numerous bilingual articles and resources.

Social Networking with Colorín Colorado

Check out our new Facebook and Twitter pages, and join as friends to follow news from the site!

Best of the Summer

In case you missed our June and July editions of the T.ELL.E-GRAM, here are some highlights:

Creating a 'Welcome Kit' for New ELLs

It is important for school administrators and staff to spend some time thinking of ways to help new ELL students make a smooth transition into school and ease their anxiety. One way to help ELL students feel welcome and get them prepared for success in school is to present them with a "Welcome Kit".

ELLs in Early Education: Recruiting Immigrant Families

This 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.

Teaching English Language Learners: What the Research Does — and Does Not — Say

This review by Dr. Claude Goldenberg of Stanford University, in the latest issue of AFT's American Educator magazine, offers a comprehensive summary of existing research on issues related to the education of ELLs. This review is a must-read for anyone interested in ELL research, and its implication for teaching and learning.

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!

Featured Articles

The NCTE Position Paper on the Role of English Teachers in Educating English Language Learners (ELLs) addresses what mainstream teachers need to know in order to provide effective instruction for ELLs, focusing on the English language and literacy skills that support ELLs in becoming successful learners. The report discusses the wide variety of skill levels and background knowledge that ELL students represent and suggests best practices for teaching language in the content area. Included is an extensive list of related references.

English Language Learners and the Five Essential Components of Reading Instruction provides recommendations for instructing ELLs in the areas of phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. These five components of reading instruction, identified by the National Reading Panel (2000) as being essential to literacy teaching, have become the cornerstone of Reading First instruction throughout the U.S. In this article, Beth Atuñez provides practical suggestions for helping English language learners develop skills in each of these areas.

For further reading on this topic, take a look at the Executive Summary of Developing Literacy in Second-Language Learners: Report of the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth.*

Research and Reports

Promoting Academic Literacy Among Secondary English Language Learners: A Synthesis of Research and Practice, published by the U.C. Davis School of Education, is a synthesis of research and best practice in literacy instruction for secondary-level ELLs. It includes a summary of presentations by ELL experts during a conference on improving education for secondary ELLs in California. The article is unique in that it presents the perspectives not only of researchers, but of policy makers and practitioners as well.

Doing What Works is a website developed by the U.S. Department of Education to provide up-to-date information on the effectiveness of current educational practices. It includes practice guides created by the USDOE's Institute of Education Sciences that evaluate existing research on specific teaching practices. A recent IES practice guide, Teaching Literacy in English to K-5 English Learners, makes recommendations for ELL literacy instruction in the areas of assessment, small-group instruction, vocabulary instruction, academic English development, and cooperative learning.

Doing What Works also features a free digital workshop on teaching ELLs with a useful overview of teaching strategies, vocabulary instruction, and academic English development.

New! Upadated "Research and Reports" Section

See Colorín Colorado's new, expanded Research & Reports section for more articles on best practice for ELL instruction. Each entry includes a summary of the article, the topics covered, key words, the research question(s) that guided the research, and policy recommendations.

In the Classroom

Bright Ideas that Work

Language Acquisition: An Overview

This month's Bright Ideas article provides an overview to the process and stages of language acquisition, as well as teaching strategies and what teachers can expect as students move through the different stages of language development. The article can be used as a comprehensive yet digestible introduction to language acquisition for new ELL educators, as well as a helpful refresher for veteran teachers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Teachers of English language learners face a unique challenge in that they must effectively teach content material while at the same time helping their students develop the English language skills they need in order to master that content. For some ideas on how to manage that dual role, check out the following FAQs:

• What should be the main goal for teaching ELLs in the content areas?
• What does an effective language acquisition program look like?
• Where can I find curriculum resources to teach ELLs in a mainstream classroom?

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

Achieving Success: From the Heart

Dr. Robin Scarcella is the presenter in this month's academic language webcast. She is a Professor at the University of California at Irvine, where she also serves as the Director of the Program in Academic English and ESL. She has written over sixty scholarly publications on ESL teaching and L2 acquisition, edited numerous volumes, and written many methodology books and textbooks. Her articles have appeared in such journals as the TESOL Quarterly, Language Learning, Brain and Language and Second Language Research. Her most recent volume is Accelerating Academic English.

She received her doctoral degree in Linguistics at the University of Southern California and her masters in Second Language Acquisition-Education from Stanford University. She has presented at conferences in the United States, Canada, Central America, South America, Europe and the Middle East. In the last four years, she has provided professional development workshops to over 10,000 elementary and secondary teachers.

Beyond the Classroom

Book of the Month

Quinito, Day and Night / Quinito, Día y Noche
By Ina Cumpiano
Illustrated by José Ramírez

Author Ina Cumpiano and illustrator José Ramírez, creators of Quinito's Neighborhood, have teamed up again in this new children's book to bring young readers an engaging story about young Quinito, his family, and his daily activities. The bilingual story shows how opposites (early/late, sunny/rainy, messy/neat) play an important part in Quinito's life through charming text and vibrant illustrations. Ideal for young children learning new English and Spanish vocabulary.

In a Word: Academic English

This month's glossary term refers to the English language ability required for academic achievement in context-reduced situations, such as classroom lectures and textbook reading assignments. This is sometimes referred to as Cognitive/Academic Language Proficiency (CALP).

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

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