Teaching Adolescent English Language Learners: Essential Strategies for Middle and High School
ISBN: 978-1-934000-00-7
Publication Date: January 2010
Are your adolescent English language learners struggling to read, write, and learn across subject areas? Are they making it to graduation?
This practical guide is grounded in the latest research on adolescent literacy development. It features effective strategies that general education teachers, ESL teachers, and guidance counselors can use to ensure that middle and high school English language learners develop proficiency in academic English, succeed in school, and graduate. It is written by exemplary secondary school teachers who know firsthand the challenges of educating adolescent ELLs, and who have implemented these strategies effectively in their classes.
As Deborah Short highlights in the foreword, this book also offers much more than teaching strategies. It is about the social dimension of learning in secondary schools, of shaping one’s identity, and of bridging boundaries the between school and home, school and work, native languages and English, and in-school and out-of-school literacies.
Key Features
- Clear teaching principles to inform practice
- A wealth of strategies and best practices that promote reading, writing, listening, speaking, and learning in every subject area
- Creative ways to use and support the native language
- Guidelines and practical advice for counselors regarding ELLs
- End of chapter checklists to guide teacher reflection
Price: $34.95
TABLE OF CONTENTS [ click to expand ]
2. Credits, Graduation and Beyond: The Importance of Families, Teachers, and Guidance Counselors Working Together.
3. Using the Native Language to Support Secondary ELLs
4. Language and Literacy Frameworks to Guide Teachers’ Work with Secondary ELLs
5. Oral Language
6. Reading in a Second Language
7. Academic Listening and Note-Taking in a Second Language
8. Writing in a Second Language
9. Supporting ELLs in Mainstream English Classes
WHAT REVIEWERS ARE SAYING [ click to expand ]
Deborah Short
From the Foreword
Teaching Adolescent English Language Learners: Essential Strategies for Middle and High School brings middle and high school English language learners alive. With evident respect and appreciation for these learners, the authors show teachers how to learn about their students and how to implement practical, effective instruction and program designs so the ELLs can be successful in school. The authors are bilingual and bicultural themselves and clearly demonstrate that they understand adolescents and schooling.
Teaching Adolescent English Language Learners provides practical advice and field-tested strategies and techniques for the classroom. The authors have also drawn from the research literature on the transfer of skills from the first language to a second and competently explain how use of native language resources and respect for bilingualism can enhance student learning in Chapter 3. A plethora of instructional suggestions are included in Chapters 5-8 that apply to multiple subjects and types of learners, many with examples of student work, and all with steps for implementation. These ideas have been utilized in real-life classrooms so teachers can be assured that they work.
The text goes beyond instructional techniques and lesson planning to a whole school approach with guidance for program design, professional development, and support services. It embodies the philosophy that every student can learn and, as the authors express it, “make it to graduation.”
ABOUT THE AUTHORS [ click to expand ]
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Nancy Cloud Nancy Cloud, Ed.D., is a professor in the Feinstein School of Education and Human Development at Rhode Island College. She coordinates the M.Ed. in TESL Program, teaches graduate courses on second language and literacy development, and is a nationally renowned author and educator. |
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Judah Lakin Judah Lakin, M.Ed., is a bilingual and content ESL social studies teacher at Hope High School in Providence, Rhode Island. He received his BA in History from Brown University, and an M.Ed. in Teaching English as a Second Language from Rhode Island College. Lakin also co-coordinates the after-school tutoring program and the family-engagement committee. Recently he has dedicated his efforts to helping undocumented immigrants gain access to higher education and has founded Higher Inc., a non-profit aimed at giving scholarships to undocumented students who need financial assistance to attend college. Lakin has traveled extensively, including to the Dominican Republic, Ghana, and Guatemala to visit and learn from the families and communities he teaches here in the United States. |
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Erin Leininger Erin Leininger, M.Ed., is an ESL teacher at Hope High School in Providence, RI. She received her B.A. in English and Spanish and her M.Ed. in Secondary Education from the University of California at Santa Barbara. In addition to teaching, Leininger co-coordinates the after-school tutoring program and the family-engagement committee. She loves getting to know her students and their families as much as possible, and thus far has visited two countries– the Dominican Republic and Guatemala – to learn from her students’ families and communities. |
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Laura Maxwell Laura Maxwell, M.A.T., is an English teacher at Hope High School in Providence, Rhode Island and a Writing Fellow through the Rhode Island Writing Project. She has taught for 10 years in urban schools in Providence, Rhode Island and in Cape Town, South Africa. Before becoming a teacher Maxwell worked in the non-profit sector for The Coalition of Essential Schools and The Education Commission of the States. She received her Master of Arts in Teaching English from Brown University in 2000, and is currently pursuing a master's degree on teaching ELLs from Brown's Portuguese and Brazilian Studies department. |