Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! We are very grateful to all of our readers of the blog and visitors to the upcoming ELD Strategies website. Thanks for all of the encouragement and feedback that you have been providing! We're thankful to all of the many teachers who work tirelessly and go above and beyond to meet the needs of their precious students!

We wanted to let you know about the giveaway that the Spanglishbabyfinds.com website is having for the new Pat Mora book about Thanksgiving. The deadline is November 29th, which is after Thanksgiving, but this precious book can be read after the holidays with your students or even your own children!

You can find the giveaway by clicking here.

If you haven't already, join our Facebook page if you are on facebook by clicking on the facebook badge on the right hand side of this blog. We just started the page and will be sending updates from this blog, but also other things that you might find interesting!

Happy Thanksgiving, once again and thank you for stopping by!

Literacy and Language Development Activities During the Week of Thanksgiving

It's that time of the year again when teachers can make a really great connection to students' home lives--Thanksgiving! I know that many might be on vacation during the week of Thanksgiving, but those who are not have the opportunity to make connections with their students and build literacy through the study of the theme of Thanksgiving. Teachers can try the following activities with their students in order to build literacy and language development:

1. Write a letter about what students are thankful for in their lives. Teachers should provide a model for students at the lower levels of ELD English proficiency. Teachers can also teach mini-lessons about letter writing, capitalization, punctuation, compound sentences and many other language objectives when teaching about letter writing. Make every second count! Just because students are having with holiday activities doesn't mean that literacy and language objectives shouldn't be taught!
2. Read aloud books about Thanksgiving to students. The local library or local bookstores will have tons of books about Thanksgiving. Read both nonfiction and fiction books about the holiday. Take the time to teach concepts of print, comprehension strategies and other mini-lessons about reading.
   
3. Ask students to orally share with their partners how they celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday in their home. Guide students (by showing a model) of how to write a paragraph about how they celebrate Thanksgiving in their home. Compile all of the paragraphs into a class book.
4. Chant and read songs, poems, and chants about Thanksgiving and related themes such as turkeys, pumpkins, and autumn. English learners will benefit from the oral language development and reading. In addition, teachers can teach English language development (ELD) mini-lessons about vocabulary, pronunciation, phonics, high frequency words, and many other literacy topics. Teachers can find poems on the Can Teach website, the Alphabet Soup website, the Apples4Teacher website, and many other websites.

Have fun and develop literacy!

Initial Identification and Assessment of English Learners

Have you ever wondered how English learners are identified within the school system? When students are first enrolled in the school system, parents are given a home language survey that asks specific questions about the student's primary language, dominant language, and languages spoken by adults in the home. Based on the answers to the questions, students may be identified as an English learner and will be administered an assessment of their primary and second languages.

I've published a more detailed article over on Associated Content that outlines the process of initial identification and assessment of English learners. You can find the article here:

Initial Identification and Assessment of English Learners

Teaching English Learners with the SIOP Model

In the past I have written about the SIOP model (Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol), an instructional model of sheltered instruction, English language development (ELD) and literacy for English learners. SIOP is a research-based instructional model that integrates all of the critical components of sheltered instruction as well as effective SDAIE strategies.

The SIOP model is clearly outlined in the book "Making Content Comprehensible for English Learners: The SIOP Model". As I mentioned before, the book is very powerful because it compiles all of the research-based components that are essential for the education of second language learners.

Now I have just found out the creators of the SIOP model also have published additional books about the SIOP model! Reading these books will further develop your understanding of the SIOP model and will assist you in it's implementation.

Here are some examples of additional SIOP books:

• 99 Ideas and Activities for Teaching English Learners with the SIOP Model: This book is pretty explanatory! It includes 99 ideas and activities for each of the eight SIOP components. It's a further expansion of the smaller section in the original SIOP book about sample SIOP strategies.
• Making Content Comprehensible for Elementary English Learners-The SIOP Model: This book includes new classroom vignettes that were not in the original book. It also includes additional SIOP strategies, resources for English learners who are struggling readers, a review of writing content and language objectives, and a section on response to intervention within the SIOP model. A cd also comes with the book with video vignettes in an elementary classroom
• Making Content Comprehensible for Secondary English Learners-The SIOP Model: This book includes everything that I just talked about in the elementary book, except it has a focus on the SIOP model at the secondary level. This is a great resource for middle school and high school teachers who are teaching an English language development (ELD) class, a sheltered instruction class, or who have a class with English learners!!

But wait-it even gets better! When I have conducted a SIOP training, it is inevitable that math teachers sometimes feel that the initial SIOP book doesn't have enough examples, SDAIE strategies, and classroom vignettes with an emphasis on teaching math to English learners. Now SIOP has created a SIOP book with a specific emphasis on mathematics! The book is called "The SIOP Model for Teaching Math to English Learners". I recommend that math teachers first read the original SIOP book, but then the book with an emphasis on math is a second must-read!

You can read more about these books and some future books that will be published about the SIOP model in the ELD Strategies store!
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New Website!!

I'm really excited about the new website that we are working on for English language development!! Well, it's not so much of a new website, but it has been offline for about six months due to a technical change in the hosting company and I haven't had a chance to add anything to it!

Please visit ELDStrategies.com and let us know what you think of the format so far! I am slowly working on it, adding content, so please be patient because I am trying to figure out the technical part as I am also writing the content at the same time!

I plan on keeping this blog and trying to write a little more regularly, but there are also things that I can do over on the regular website that I can't do on the blog. For example, I would like to create some documents, powerpoints, and other resources for teachers that I would like to upload to the site and make them easily accessible to be downloaded. I can't do that here!

One of my major plans over on the main ELD Strategies site is to create a teacher forum where teachers can network and share resources with one another. I've got some really great ideas and I am working hard to put it all together because I know that there is such a need for an online community of teachers of English learners.

Just imagine one website that you can go to that has everything that you need to teach English learners! That's my major goal. I've just been playing around on this blog here, trying to learn about technology and social media, and now I am committed to moving forward and creating a website that will serve as a comprehensive resource for teachers.

I'm open to suggestions as to what you think should be included on the website. I have unlimited pages, so I can address many issues. Please feel free to leave a comment or email me at info(at)eldstrategies(dot)com if you would like to make a few suggestions about what you think would be on the ideal site for teachers of English learners. I want to make this site relevant and useful to teachers, so please don't hold back your suggestions!!

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Second Language Programs for English Learners

I just published an article that outlines the various program options available for second language learners. The article details the differences between English Mainstream programs, structured English immersion, and the various forms of bilingual education.

You can check out the article here:

Second Language Programs for English Learners

Book Giveaway!!

We're having a giveaway of Colin Baker's book "Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism" over on our multilingual blog. Even if you aren't a bilingual teacher, this book is an excellent resource for teachers or people who would like to learn more about second language education. You can find the details over on Multilingual Mania! If you would like to enter, leave a comment over there that you found us through the ELD Strategies blog!