Fifty Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners

This updated edition includes a rich assortment of practical features to support teachers as they meet the challenges of the 21st-century classroom. All of the strategies in this book are aligned to the TESOL standards and have been field-tested in diverse classrooms. A DVD illustrates select strategies being used in a classroom dominated by English learners.

Adrienne Herrell is a professor of reading/language arts at California State University, Fresno.

The United States becomes more ethnically and linguistically diverse every year. More than 90 percent of new residents come from non-English-speaking countries. The number of students with non-English-speaking backgrounds represents the fastest growing group of this population. In the last decade, the total student enrollment in public schools increased by only 14 percent, while the number of English learners grew 70 percent and is projected to grow even more (National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education, 1999). The 2000 U.S. Census identified 20 percent of school-age children as non-native English speakers (Jamieson, Curry, & Martinez, 2001). Teachers everywhere are faced with enormous challenges in their classrooms. They are expected to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse population each year. There is more content to teach each year, as well. Teachers are now expected to integrate technology and teach to myriad standards, and they are judged by the standardized test scores achieved by their students, with no excuses tolerated and little understanding of the challenges they face daily in the classroom. This second edition ofFifty Strategies for Teaching English Language Learnersincludes a number of features to support teachers in meeting some of the more daunting challenges of the 21 st century classroom. WHAT'S NEW IN THE SECOND EDITION? Organization This edition is organized to serve as a resource book, not just a text. The book is arranged in five sections. Section I: Theoretical Overviewsupports the teacher in understanding the basic principles of teaching and assessing English learners. Section II: Strategies for Enhancing Instruction through Planninggives suggestions of ways to integrate the basic principles addressed in Section I into effective classroom lessons. This section focuses on the adaptations necessary in making ordinary lessons extraordinary in helping ELL students understand the content being taught and acquire the English necessary for successful participation in English-only classrooms. The last three sections in the book address specific learning goals. Section III: Strategies for Supporting Student Involvementsupports the teacher in ensuring active participation by all students. This is an important factor in enhancing the success of English learners in the classroom. Section IV: Strategies for Building Vocabulary and Fluencygives a number of vocabulary and fluency-building approaches. Section V: Strategies for Building Comprehensioncompletes the text by providing active-learning approaches to helping students make sense of the instruction and readings they encounter. Each section begins with easy-to-implement strategies and progresses to more involved approaches. It should be noted that all 50 strategies have been thoroughly field-tested in highly diverse classrooms in California, Florida, and Alaska. Standards Base The national TESOL (Teachers of English to Students of Other Languages) Standards are used as the standards base for this text (TESOL, 1997). A matrix of the TESOL Standards and the 50 strategies in the text demonstrates the standards supported by each strategy (see Standards Matrix in Table P.1 on page xii). At the beginning of each strategy there is a list of the TESOL Standards supported by that strategy. In addition, there are examples of the outcome behaviors that could be expected as a result of the teaching strategy listed for each of the three grade-level ranges (pre-K-3, 4--8, and 9-12) of the TESOL Standards at the conclusion of each strategy. These are included to help teachers visualize the type of student behaviors they should begin to see in their English learners as a result of lessons planned to enhance both content knowledge and English development. Assessment In addition to the assessment strategies explained in the