There Are Tons Of Resources On This Blog To Help Educators Teach ELLs – This Post Is A Good Place To Start

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This blog is filled to the brim with all sorts of teaching resources, particularly ones geared towards supporting English Language Learners.

I have done my best to keep things relatively organized and accessible, but sixteen years of thirty thousand posts is a whole lot of stuff to deal with!

I was recently asked by a friend if I had one post to help an educator new to working with ELLs get started because my blog can initially appear intimidating.

So, this post is my attempt at publishing that one post to help a teacher get started.

HOW I ACTUALLY TEACH ELLS

I think this series of three posts can be a good start in helping people see how I actually teach ELLs.  Each posts also includes links to additional related instructional resources:

HERE’S WHAT MY TWO-PERIOD ELL NEWCOMERS CLASS LOOKS LIKE THIS YEAR

What Happens In A Typical Day During My ELL U.S. History Class

What Happens In A Typical Day During My ELL Newcomers Class

OVERVIEW OF WHAT MY CURRICULUM LOOKS LIKE

The Thematic Schedule I’m Using In My ELL Beginner’s Class

The Thematic Schedule I’m Using In My Intermediate ELL Class

THE KEY ONLINE SITES I ENCOURAGE MY STUDENTS TO USE

Apart from Google Slides, I seldom have students use online sites as part of our classroom lessons.  However, I do have an unofficial before-school class where students come to work on their laptops; every Friday I have students work on them for awhile after they take their formative assessment quiz; and I certainly encourage them to work online at home.

Here are those key sites:

Quill (Newcomers & Intermediates – free)

Learning Chocolate (Newcomers – free)

LingoHut (Newcomers & Intermediate – free)

Epic! (Primarily Intermediates – free at school)

Raz-Kids (Newcomers & Intermediates – paid by me)

Loecsen is very good for pronunciation feedback (free)

Brainpop (Newcomers & Intermediates – paid by school district) Note here that I do not use the Brainpop ELL program – my students have never liked it.  However, Brainpop, Jr. and Brainpop Espanol to help provide prior knowledge for their content classes are great!

Note that Duolingo is not on this list.  Students and I do like it.  However, our district and, from what I hear, quite a few others do not find its student data privacy agreement adequate, so it can’t be used on our district devices.

KEY ONLINE SITES THAT I USE IN CLASS

I don’t use many, but everyday end class with online games from either Quizizz or Blooket to reinforce what we have learned that day. Our school pays for a premium Quizizz subscription, and I pay for a Blooket one, but their free versions are also more than adequate.

FluentKey is a wonderful site for listening practice, and it’s free.

ONLINE SOURCE FOR MATERIALS I USE IN CLASS

I’ve been teaching long enough to have developed most of my own materials, but if I ever need anything, the iSL Collective is the place I visit.  It has a zillion free and teacher-created resources that are easily downloadable.  It also has a ton of interactive videos teachers can show students and then have them respond on mini-whiteboards (at least, that’s how I use them).

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Of course, our popular books on teaching ELLs provide lots of details, and hundreds of student handouts are freely downloadable without any registration required.  Check out excerpts and links at:

The ESL/ELL Teacher’s Survival Guide

The ELL Teacher’s Toolbox

Navigating the Common Core with English Language Learners

Katie Hull Sypnieski and I are currently working on a second edition of the “Toolbox.”  Wish us luck!

I have to update this next post, but it does have many useful resources: A Collection Of My Best Resources On Teaching English Language Learners

Lastly, Katie and I have done a fair number of useful videos related to ELL teaching.

I hope you found this post helpful!