Common Misconceptions About English Language Development (ELD)

The following statements are common misconceptions about teaching English language development (ELD) to English learners:

Misconception #1: Students at the Early Advanced and Advanced levels of English proficiency no longer require English language development on a daily basis.

False! Even though students are at the higher levels of proficiency in English, they still need continual language development in the following areas: phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, language functions and pragmatics. You can find additional information about each of these components on the ELD Strategies website's article "What is ELD?".

Misconception #2: ELD cannot be taught during Science or Social Studies time.

False! English language development (ELD) can be taught through the medium of Science and Social Studies if English language objectives are also simultaneously integrated with Science and Social Studies instruction. Content-based ELD consists of the teaching of phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, language functions and pragmatics while at the same time developing concepts in Science and Social Studies. If Science and Social Studies instruction is to be considered as ELD time, there must be a clear focus on language development, language structures and previously mentioned components of ELD.

For example, when studying the solar system, students might learn that the planets in the solar system move in a predictable pattern around the Sun. They might also learn that inner planets and outer planets have distinct characteristics. In a content-based ELD lesson, students will also develop language through the study of the solar system. Teachers might include the ELD standards of writing paragraphs with topic sentences and details, while differentiating expectations for students at the various levels of language proficiency. Or teachers may choose to include an ELD standard in the area of reading comprehension and main idea/details.

Misconception #3: State English language development (ELD) proficiency tests do a good job of measuring students' current English proficiency level.

False! State language proficiency tests are only one indicator of language proficiency and should also be paired with multiple measures of assessment. Proficiency tests do not take into account that the student might have been having a bad day on that particular day in which they are assessed, or students may be unfamiliar with the format of the assessment. In addition, many language proficiency assessment results may arrive months after having administered the assessment. In the case of the CELDT (California English Language Development Test), test results might arrive three to five months after assessing the students. It's imperative that teachers fully understand the English language development (ELD)/ESL standards in order to create multiple measures of assessment to measure language proficiency.

Misconception #4: Students at the beginning stages of English language development (ELD) understand very little of what is being taught in class.

False! Students who are at the beginning levels of language proficiency often comprehend much more than they are able to express orally or through writing, provided that teachers use a variety of instructional strategies to make content comprehensible for English learners. Teachers should employ alternative measure of assessment in order to determine student understanding. For example, teachers might ask students to draw a picture of what they learned, or ask students to summarize what they learned in their primary language.

Misconception #5: During ELD instruction, teachers and students should not use students' primary language and should speak only in English.

While the main focus of English language development (ELD) is the development of proficiency in English, there may be instances in which teachers and students utilize students' primary language. Teachers might use students' primary language to quickly preteach or reteach, or to clarify a difficult concept, word or idea. Teachers might also have students summarize what they learned in their primary language, as an informal assessment of learning.

Two New SIOP Books!

Two additional books about the SIOP model of instruction for English learners have been published this month! I'm really excited about them, because they are books that are specific to the content of Science and Social Studies!

Check out "The SIOP Model for Teaching Science to English Learners" in the ELD Strategies store!

Check out "The SIOP Model for Teaching History-Social Science to English Learners" in the ELD Strategies store!

Update: We just heard that the SIOP Science book was published, but that the Social Studies book has been postponed until June! You can still preorder the book though!

Revisiting the Cognitive Content Dictionary (CCD)

In our last post, we discussed the use of the cognitive content dictionary, a Project GLAD strategy that is designed to build academic vocabulary and word analysis skills. If you haven't read that post, you might want to read it first! You can read it by clicking here.

On the first day we gave the students the word and asked students to make a prediction about the meaning of the word. We also used the word as a signal word, using a gesture and giving the hint to the word. Next we read poems about the word "ecologist" and pointed out the word as we read it in a text.

The next day we revisited the cognitive content dictionary and asked students to tell us the meaning of the word "ecologist". As mentioned in our first post, we did a mini-lesson on some of the word parts that the word contained. Students then put the word into an oral sentence.

One thing that we noticed throughout the day when students were using the word was that they said, "A ecologist...". We therefore thought that it was an excellent opportunity to conduct a minilesson of when the articles "a" and "an" should be used.

We then gave the students a new word and went through the same process with the new word.

A helpful reminder when practicing the cognitive content dictionary ELD strategy is that you might want to pick academic words that can be analyzed by prefixes, suffixes, root words, etc. An excellent resource for word analysis is the ESL Teacher's Book of Lists, which can be found in the ELD Strategies store. In addition, the word will need to be a word that students will be exposed to in multiple contexts such as poems, books, videos, etc.

Using the Cognitive Content Dictionary to Develop "Word Attack" Skills

Today we modeled the cognitive content dictionary from Project GLAD with English learners in a third grade bilingual classroom during ELD time. The students were at varying levels of proficiency in English, ranging from beginning to advanced levels.

We first wrote the words "ecologist" and asked students who had heard the words before (h) and who had not heard the word before (nh). Then we asked students to "put their heads together" in a cooperative group and make a prediction about the meaning of the word. We called on a representative to tell us what prediction their team came up with, and asked what clues they used to make that prediction.

As you can see in the picture, the first group predicted that the word ecologist meant "scientist". When we asked what helped them make that prediction, they told us that the word had the ending "-ist" and it reminded them of scientist. The second group informed us that they thought ecologist was a signal for something because they had heard us say by accident, "When you hear the word ecologist, I want you to..." The third group told us that they thought that the word meant "college" because it "sounded like the word college". Another group expressed a similar prediction stating that it must be a scientist who went to college. The final group informed us that they predicted that it meant "knowledge" because the part "olog" in the word sounded like the word "knowledge".

Throughout the lesson we read about ecologists and pointed out the word in poems and the book. Tomorrow we will ask students to tell us the meaning of the word and then we will conduct word analysis on the word, explaining that "eco" means "environment", "ologist/ology" means "one who studies __ or the study of ___", and "-ist" means "a person who".

From our initial modeling it was clear that the students already had word consciousness, because many of them noticed and analyzed the word parts in order to aid them in predicting the meaning of the word.
cognitive content dictionary, eld, english language development, project glad, glad strategies
Why do we write down predictions, even if they are not correct?
It's important that students begin to make their own predictions about words, based on context clues or morphological analysis of word parts. If we always give students the meanings to vocabulary, when will they ever learn to have the word attack skills necessary to predict the meanings of words? As teachers we need to sometimes explicitly tell students the meaning to certain vocabulary words, but at other times we also need to assist students with learning how to become "word detectives" and figure out the meaning of the word on their own. At times it is necessary for students to make their own predictions and later return to confirm and revise their predictions.
eld, eld standards, the cognitive content dictionary is an eld strategy, eld strategies, eld
Why is it important to ask about the clues that they used to make the prediction?
It's important to model with students that there are various clues that we can use when trying to figure out the meaning of an unknown word. It's important that students become sophisticated with looking for prefixes, suffixes, root words, cognates and context clues that enable them to make a prediction about the meaning of a word. This takes considerable practice and teacher modeling in order for students to appropriate "word attack" skills and become proficient enough to use it on their own when reading independently.

When using an ELD strategy such as the cognitive content dictionary with English learners, it helps to sometimes choose words that might have prefixes, suffixes, roots words, etc in order for students to develop practice with morphological analysis of words. When you first begin to use the strategy, students might not have the sophistication necessary to verbalize which clues they used used to make the prediction. In this event, teachers can prompt students by using the following examples:

• Does the word remind you of another word? Does it look like a word that you know?
• Have you seen the word somewhere before?
  
• Did someone tell you what they thought the word meant?
• Did you just make a "wild guess"?

With enough practice and teacher modeling, many students will begin to independently use word attack skills on their own in order to determine the meaning of unknown words.
The cognitive content dictionary is an ELD strategy that can be used during ELD for vocabulary development. ELD means English language development.

Using Math Songs to Teach Language Development

Photo by woodleywonderworks

The other day we mentioned in a post that songs, poems and chants can be used to simultaneously develop language as well as mathematical concepts with students who are learning English. We linked to a couple of "math poems" books that have poems that can be utilized with students in order to develop language and literacy. You can find the post by clicking here.

Integrating poems, songs and chants support language and literacy development with students who are highly musical, kinesthetic, linguistic and verbal. Students often know how to solve basic skills problems, but often have difficulties on standardized math tests because many tests also focus on the language and vocabulary that is associated with math. Integrating poems and songs helps students practice mathematical vocabulary, as well as assists musically and verbally inclined students with memory recall of mathematical facts.

To make it easier for teachers, we have been scouring the web for math songs and poems and found thousands of math songs for children on Amazon. We have been working hard to categorize them for elementary-level teachers into mathematical concepts. These songs are easily downloadable and are automatically downloaded into your itunes or windows media player. In the near future, we will also include some regular math compact discs in the ELD Strategies store.

Tips for Using Math Songs in the Classroom
When using a math song in the classroom, it would be beneficial to write out the words to the song on chart paper. We recommend playing the song once so that students will hear the rhythm and cadence. After listening to the song once, teachers can turn students' attention to the chart paper with the words and read the song with students. Teachers may elect to include pictures or sketches next to words on the chart paper, or may highlight key vocabulary words with a highlighter. Next, teachers can play the song again, using a pointer with the chart paper so that students can visually follow along with the words as the song is being sung.

The song can also be typed and copied for students to take home to practice. Typing up the songs on paper for students to read independently aids in reading fluency, decoding and vocabulary development. Teachers can include multiple songs on the same topic in order to provide English learners with multiple exposures to similar vocabulary words in different contexts. Typing up the words to the songs for students to read are a cost-effective way to include reading practice and language development through the study of math.

Check out the following songs, which have brief excerpts that you can listen to:

General Math Songs
Addition Songs
Counting Songs
Subtraction Songs
Multiplication Songs
Division Songs
Geometry Songs
Shapes Songs
Songs About Telling Time
Songs About Clocks
Place Value Songs
Measurement Songs
Days of the Week Songs
Calendar Songs

We plan on adding additional topics and themes soon, so stay tuned!
teaching math songs, math siop lessons, math poetry, songs about math, eld, math songs, multiplication math songs, kids math songs, elementary math songs, music math songs, songs and math, songs with math, download math songs

More Published Articles!

We have published some articles on AssociatedContent.com. Check them out when you have a chance!

What is Project GLAD?
What is SIOP?
Principles of Effective Vocabulary Development

Please check them out when you have a chance! Thanks for your support!

Teaching Math to English Learners

As a teacher it was hard enough for me to teach math to young students, let alone teaching math to students at the lower levels of proficiency in English. As I became more skilled in teaching math, I learned that I was just teaching math in a "memorization" type of way and the main issue as to why students were unable to attain long-term mastery of mathematical concepts was because I was not teaching them conceptually in an in-depth manner.

Teachers must remember that English learners who are acquiring a second language have a double burden: they must keep up with grade level content at the same time that they are acquiring a second language. Not only do students need practice with mathematical skills, they also must learn the mathematical vocabulary and grammatical/language structures of the mathematics content area.

One way that teachers can expose students to mathematical vocabulary is through the use of songs, poems and chants. Teachers can create their own basic chants and rhymes with well-known, traditional songs for children. For teachers who might not be musically or poetically inclined, there are also a variety of books that have songs, poems, and chants for students about mathematical concepts, such as:

• Marvelous Math: A Book of Poems
• Circle Time Poetry Math
• Math Poetry: Linking Language and Math in a Fresh Way

Students who have authentic, meaningful practice with mathematical vocabulary and concepts through the fun use of chants, songs, and poems will be more inclined to store mathematical vocabulary and concepts in their long-term memory.

An additional way to develop language and math in a simultaneous way is to integrate literature and non-fiction books that contain mathematical vocabulary, concepts or real-life use of math. In the upcoming months, we will be creating a '"teaching math to English learners" section to the main ELDStrategies.com website where we will review many literature and non-fiction books that are recommended for using with English learners. In the meantime, you can also find some recommended titles in the ELD Strategies store by clicking here.

You can find additional resources for teaching mathematics to English learners from kindergarten through high school, as well as poems and some recommended children books in the ELD Strategies store.

Happy New Year!
teaching math to English learners, math and English learners, eld, teach math to english learners, esl, math books for children, teaching math, teach math, english language development

Activating Prior Knowledge and Building Background

Yesterday we uploaded a page on "Activating Prior Knowledge and Building Background" onto the ELD Strategies main site. We quickly explained the distinction between activating prior knowledge and building background. Activating prior knowledge signifies that teachers find out what students know, don't know or have misconceptions about regarding a topic of study. When it is determined that students may not have background on a certain topic, teachers can employ a variety of activities to build background and understanding of the topic.
The SIOP model has a "Building Background" component and gives a variety of strategies that teachers may use to build background. For teachers who have attended Project GLAD training, the focus/motivation strategies such as the inquiry chart and observation charts are designed to activate students' prior knowledge, and the cognitive content dictionary (ccd) and teacher-made big books can be used to build background knowledge.

SIOP explains that one component of building background is the teaching of academic vocabulary. According to SIOP, academic vocabulary consists of three elements: 1) content specific words; 2) functional language; and, 3) morphological analysis and word study. One excellent strategy to teach content-specific words and morphological analysis is the cognitive content dictionary (Project GLAD).

Please visit the main site and check out the resources that we are creating about building background. The site is currently under-construction but we are currently working on adding additional details about academic language, specific "how-to" information about building background strategies, resources for teachers about how to provide morphological analysis on selected academic vocabulary, as well as additional ELD strategies that be used during ELD time. You can visit the Building Background page that we have created by clicking here.
eld, english language development, eld teaching strategies, project glad, siop components, cognitive content dictionary, the difference between project glad and siop, siop and project glad, eld lessons, building background for english learners, esl

Developing Language and Literacy With Multicultural Holiday Books

Happy holiday season! We've uploaded a number of holiday books about Christmas around the world, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa in our ELD Strategies store so that you can read about them in your classroom, or with your very own children! The holiday season is a great time to make connections with students about how they celebrate the various holidays in their family, and it's a excellent opportunity to also learn about how other people celebrate. These books are a fun way to promote literacy and language development while having fun and engaging students at the same time!

As a follow-up to many of the books, students can write about how they celebrate the holidays in their house, or they can write an expository essay or shared writing about one of the holidays that they learned about.

You can find the holiday book in the ELD Strategies store by clicking here.

Language and Literacy Online Resources

Today when I was looking at the sites of public library sites online I found an interesting online resource that I thought has great potential for teachers of English language learners. The resource is called the "Tumblebook Library". It's an online database of digitalized and animated books for children in English and multiple other languages. The stories are appropriate for many English learners because it has the text on the screen at the same time that someone is narrating the story. In addition to the animated books, the site has audio books, games and quizzes and other resources.

The online resource is free if it is accessed through one of the local libraries that has purchased the resource. You can find more information about the "Tumblebook Library" and find out how to access the online library free of charge on our sister site, Multilingual Mania. Click here for more information.

We Would Greatly Appreciate Your Feedback

We are currently working on our main site "ELD Strategies" and uploading content and information slowly. We have tons of great ideas as to what we want to include on the site, including a section about SIOP, sample SIOP lesson plans and activities, information about Project GLAD, videos about effective instruction for English learners, recommended books and materials, a teacher networking forum, and many other features.

However, we don't want to make the site all about what we think that teachers like you want, so we are requesting feedback from teachers of English learners about what they would think would be useful to them as teachers of second language learners. We want to know about your frequently asked questions, things that you don't understand or find difficult about educating English learners, questions that you have about English language development or SDAIE, etc. We want to hear your suggestions so that we can create the best site for you that will meet your needs!

Please visit our main site in order to fill out a quick survey about who you are and your suggestions! We would greatly appreciate your feedback. Supporting the unique needs of teachers of English learners is our priority and your feedback helps us accomplish that goal!!

Interesting Finds: Cyber Monday Online Discounts

We are always online looking for great deals, and so we couldn't help but tell everyone about the Cyber Monday deals that are going on today at Amazon.com. Amazon has been having an "after Thanksgiving sale" since Friday and they have some really great deals on movies, books, children's games and toys, electronics-you name it! What we have really been enjoying are the "lightening rod" deals that they periodically post for a limited amount of time. We've mentioned this to a few people and they have told us that they have already completed all of their holiday shopping for a very minimal price! Check out the Cyber Monday deals when you get a chance by clicking here! The sale has been going all weekend and ends Monday!!

P.S., Don't forget about the free webinar that the Wested organization is giving regarding teaching mathematics to second language learners that we posted in our last post! We'll link to the archived recording of the webinar for those of you who will be teaching during the time of the webinar.

Have a great day!!

Webinar: Making Math Accessible to English Learners

The Wested Organization will be having a live webinar about making mathematics accessible and comprehensible to English learners on December 2, 2009 between 10:30-12:00 PST. The webinar is applicable for teachers in the upper elementary grades through high school, although I am sure that teachers in the primary grades would also benefit from the discussion. The two presenters will be Cathy Caroll and John Carr. I don't know much about Cathy Carroll, but I do know that John Carr was one of the creators of the Wested Map of ELD Standards, which helped with an alignment of the English language arts and English language development standards in California.

Interested participants can join the webinar online or via teleconference. The webinar will discuss how to use multiple ELD and SDAIE strategies in order to differentiate for students who are various levels of English proficiency levels in the mathematics classroom.

Even if you don't have any English learners in your classroom, you might find this webinar useful! It is not often that we have an opportunity to learn about strategies and differentiation for teaching mathematics instruction.

The information in the webinar will be based on Wested's book "Making Mathematics Accessible to English Learners: A Guidebook for Teachers". You can purchase the book in the ELD Strategies bookstore by clicking here.

If you would like to attend the webinar, please visit Wested's informational page. If you are unable to attend the webinar, we will post at a later time if Wested uploads a copy of the webinar to their website archives.

Additional Resources About Teaching Mathematics to English Learners:
The SIOP Model for Teaching Mathematics to English Learners
English Learners in the Mathematics Classroom
Supporting English Language Learners in Math Class (K-2)
Support English Language Learners in Math Class (Grades 3-5)
eld, eld strategies, siop, siop strategies, english language development, esl, differentiation, english learners, english language learners, second language acquisition

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!
siop model, ELD, eld activities, ELD instructional model, eld lessons, eld strategies, systematic ELD, teaching eld, siop strategies, siop lessons, siop books, siop lesson plans, siop resources, English Language Development, English learners,

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!!

eld, eld strategies, english learners, eld standards, eld activities, eld lessons, project glad, siop, english language development, ctel, clad, bclad, celdt, esl

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!