School Is Fast Approaching-Here Are Some Ideas To Ease the Transition:)

We hope you are enjoying your last few weeks of vacation:).   This school year, all the content areas will be fully engaged in delivering common core lessons with rich ELD components woven throughout.  In effect, every teacher, regardless of subject matter taught, will also be a language teacher.  Though this may seem on the service to be extra work, it really isn't.  In fact, this "switching of the gears" so to speak will be the focus of this newsletter.  We will provide you with some quality websites to ease the transition and assist you in building academic language within content areas for your students.

English-New York Times THE LEARNING NETWORK BLOG    Not only does the NY Times offer a wide range of informational text in all content areas, but also provides lessons which deliver common core material, vocabulary development, literacy development, and language development for ELLs.  It is also FREE. All content areas are addressed here.

Science and Mathematics-CK12 offers free, standards-aligned STEM teaching resources, free online textbooks, simulations, flashcards, and much more.  All items are standards aligned and support in 80 languages!

Social Studies-New York University offers some excellent resources for teaching social studies/history to ELLs.  Building content and language are addressed.

Mathematics-In addition to the link in SCIENCE and MATHEMATICS above, try this teaching support from NYC public schools.  The site contains contributions from MIT, stock market, NCTM, and more.  Everything is free.

Additional supports for ELLs that are easy to implement are posting common academic vocabulary in highly prominent places in their classrooms.  These lists would contain words such as COMPARE, ANALYZE, SYNTHESIZE, DEMONSTRATE, CLARIFY, etc.  Models of what you expect them to write should also be provided for them to reference as needed.  Visuals of finished products placed around the room (or if you use technology, in classroom websites or teacher blogs). 

Last of all is to check for understanding regularly.  Engage them in activities that require them to use the new language in as many ways as possible so that their literacy skills will grow.

Enjoy your new school year!

Denise, Marnie, and Cheryl

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