Written by a practicing classroom teacher and full of the important details that only a teacher's eye can spot, A How-to Guide for Teaching English Language Learners focuses on the day-to-day challenges of working with ELLs and shares the joy and professional satisfaction of watching, nudging, and celebrating as children make a new language their own.

Pat Barrett Dragan takes you through the first twenty days of school, showing you exactly how to get nonnative speakers in grades K-3 started on language acquisition. Then she takes you through the rest of the school year, demonstrating how to build an inclusive classroom community that encourages and supports the efforts of language learners and sharing innovative techniques ideas for:

• teaching reading and writing to children who do not know the language
• helping children express themselves in both their home language and their new language through movement, writing, music, and art
• giving students opportunities to learn through literacy and role-playing in "play-the-book centers"
• problem solving with language learners on the fly
• connecting with families even when you don't speak a common language.

 

Filled with resources, examples of student work, and commonsense suggestions, A How-to Guide for Teaching English Language Learners is an ideal companion for new or veteran teachers in any classroom where students are acquiring English.

As Dragan herself, writes, "Acquiring a second language can be a giant challenge for both children and adults…. We need to do things together so we have things to talk about, remember, and celebrate—experiences that will connect with our learning." Read A How-to Guide for Teaching English Language Learners and find new ways to connect with and celebrate your students.