5 Must-Read Books for ELL Teachers
- Teach Like A Champion Field Guide
- But What Do I DO?: Strategies From A to W for Multi-Tier Systems of Support
- Green Card Youth Voices: Immigration Stories from a Minneapolis High School
- Managing Diverse Classrooms: How to Build on Students’ Cultural Strengths
- Teaching Students Who Don’t Look Like You: Culturally Responsive Teaching Strategies
ELLs are English Language Learners and they are students who speak a language other than English at home. Each student has a different story and a different path that educators play an important role in. Here are five valuable resources to support classroom teachers in a comprehensive way.
1. Teach Like A Champion Field Guide, by Doug Lemov
In general, great teaching is great teaching and best practice teaching strategies should be the same for all students. The Field Guide is recommended over the traditional text because it contains brief summaries of the strategies and real-world techniques from the famous Teach Like A Champion on how to implement the strategies in a classroom. It allows teachers to more fully engage with the best practices than the original book. While new teachers may want to read both the full Teach Like A Champion and the Field Guide, experienced teachers will benefit from exploring the Field Guide.
2. But What Do I DO?: Strategies From A to W for Multi-Tier Systems of Support, by Dr. Catherine Collier
Differentiation is necessary in every classroom, but differentiating for students that have additional needs requires skillful insight on the part of the educator. Language learners often require individualized differentiation, which can feel overwhelming. But What Do I DO? answers the questions that real teachers have about the implementation of recommended strategies for ELLs. The book’s quick reference A-Z style makes it useful for teachers who don’t have time to tackle a whole book, but who will still benefit from various chapters.
3. Green Card Youth Voices: Immigration Stories from a Minneapolis High School
Nearly every English language learner has experienced trauma, some more severe than others. Each student has a unique story, but oftentimes groups of immigrants from the same country share relatively similar experiences. The Green Card Youth Voices series will give teachers a good perspective of the challenges that immigrant students have faced. Understanding where students have come from is the first step in helping students overcome their affective filter that may prevent academic progress.
4. Managing Diverse Classrooms: How to Build on Students’ Cultural Strengths, by Carrie Rothstein-Fisch and Elise Trumbull
Learning English should be a skill that is added to other languages that a student speaks, and should not be considered more important by the teacher, nor should the American culture be treated as more important than any other. The authors encourage teachers to involve students’ families and make sure that all stakeholders feel comfortable in the school. Managing Diverse Classrooms offers some strategies for behavior management, rules, and rewards that can help students appreciate and benefit from an American style education.
5. Teaching Students Who Don’t Look Like You: Culturally Responsive Teaching Strategies, by Bonnie M. Davis
Race is an uncomfortable topic for most people. Educators need to confront their own beliefs about race before they can help students navigate race in the United States. Today’s political environment has made life more unpredictable for many immigrant students, and fear can negatively impact the classroom environment. Culturally Responsive Teaching Strategies provides more than just strategies; readers will be asked to build a better understanding of race in general in addition to connecting issues of race to the classroom.
Related Resource: Top 20 Best Master’s in English Language Learning Online 2018
These resources will help teachers of ELLs to tackle most of the frustrations that arise while trying to reach students who are working hard to be successful in the United States. Having solid teaching skills, being aware of the challenges that students have faced, and being culturally responsive are necessary skills that can be learned from the resources profiled here.
