Most Popular 2014 Blog Posts: The Crystal Ball Revisited

As 2014 winds down, I thought I would take some time to reflect on our blog posts that had the most impact during the year. During classroom instruction, we sometimes like to have students make predictions about what they’re going to learn and compare their predictions to what they actually learned.

Along those lines, I thought it might be interesting to focus on the predictions I made about topics of interest in Looking at the Crystal Ball: Common Core for ELLs in 2014 and compare it with the blog posts that resonated most with our readers.

Top Five Blog Posts in 2014

In our Crystal Ball post, I predicted that some of the most important topics we’d be covering this year would include ELD standards, the role of ESL teachers in Common Core, instructional strategies, and policy. While we did cover those areas in 2014, the most widely read posts all fell squarely into the instructional strategies camp. As it turns out, our top five posts from 2014 were:

• Text-Dependent Questions for ELLs (Part 1)
• Common Core Curriculum Rubric: Meeting the Needs of ELLs
• Creating Text-Dependent Questions for ELLs: Examples for Second Grade (Part 2)
• Common Core Tools: Making Curriculum Units More Accessible for ELLs
• Scaffolding CCSS Instruction for ELLs – New Resource Guides

Our readers found the hands-on tools and strategies related to instruction and assessment to be very useful, which is great information to have as we look forward to content for 2015.

Along with sharing our top posts with you, I’d also like to thank this year's guest bloggers, including Julie Motta, Emily Miller, and Sydney Snyder. It was refreshing to bring in new perspectives and insights into the issues surrounding implementation of the CCSS for ELLs.

What’s Coming in 2015

Spoiler alert! Some plans for blog posts in 2015 include a very thorough example of text-dependent questions using a text for middle school ELLs, as well as an in-depth series on how one diverse elementary school elevated the role of their ESL teachers through Common Core planning and school-wide collaboration.

You’ll need to stay tuned to see what other posts and guest bloggers we have up our sleeves. We’re excited to continue to share practical strategies so that your ELLs can be better positioned to access the Common Core. Have a restful winter vacation, and we’ll see you in 2015!