What To Do When They Are New (Giveaway!)

I am thoroughly enjoying my new job as an ESOL teacher and have had the opportunity to learn so much this year! 

My great friend, Kristen from Ladybug's Teacher Files has been such a wonderful resource for me this year.  She's given me so much advice and guidance along my new journey.  We both know that it can be challenging work though…especially when new students come midyear and are not speaking English yet. Luckily, there are many things you can do to help your newcomer English Language Learners. And we would like to share what works for our newcomers…and  to learn what works well in your class too!

Here are some of my tried-and-true tips for newcomer English Language Learners:

Understand That It Takes Time

Did you know that it takes between 1-2 years for ELL students to acquire social language, but between 7-9 years to acquire academic language? For this reason, it is important to give all ELL students support in the mainstream classroom.  Even though an ELL student may carry on a conversation with you, he still may be struggling with academic language. 

Wait Time

Speaking of time, provide as much wait time as possible.  ELL students may need considerably more wait time.  Pay attention to how quickly you speak.  Too often teachers are in a hurry to say everything they need to say to finish a lesson.  Remember that less is sometimes more when it comes to speaking.  Slow down and speak clearly.  

Using Visuals

Provide as much visual support as possible to ELL students.  Visual support comes in various forms. Have a print-rich environment.  Label your classroom.  Provide pictures with word walls.  Model what you expect. Show, don't tell.  Simply telling and talking will be too challenging for an English Language Learner. ELL students will need the most support with content vocabulary.  Consider using Math or other content vocabulary word walls.  By keeping the vocabulary grouped by content, ELL students will be able to access the vocabulary easily.

Differentiate Instruction

I have found that within a classroom, there may be a wide range of reading levels.  Planning for that can be difficult.  I recently started a new series to help!  Below is the newest in the series:

These set of close reading passages all use the same vocabulary for each of the levels.  These passages can be used in a variety of ways. These passages are written so that there are nine different levels for the same story. These passages are designed to be used in small groups, however they can be used with a whole class when the vocabulary is introduced to the whole class and students read the level of text needed. This set was created to provide visual support for ELL students.  More to come in this series!

Value a Student's Home Language

Value a student's home language.  Take the time to get to know the cultural background of your ELL student.  Ask him about his home language and cultural.  If he knows that you value his background, he will be more likely to feel comfortable enough to participate more in your classroom.

Those are some of my favorite tips…but Kristen and I would love to hear YOUR tips for working with ELL newcomers! And, as a thank you for your readership, we'd love to have a giveaway. 

We are each giving away a $25 gift certificate to Teachers Pay Teachers…just in time for the site wide sale this week!

We'd also like to give a product of choice from each of our stores…please check out the Rafflecopter below for more details on how to win these prizes! And be sure to visit Kristen's blog if you haven't, for more chances to win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway