In today’s episode, I share a coaching session I had with a ESL Teaching Roadmap member. She teaches 9th grade ELA and ELD in a district that is just getting their ESL program off the ground. She explains that there is no curriculum for her to work from, so she feels like she is making everything up as she goes. 

We begin by discussing one student, in particular, who is a newcomer in one of her mixed proficiency support classes. She also asks how to assess this new student to see what he is actually capable of understanding and producing. The WIDA just doesn’t give the information she needs to see where he is. I recommend an informal assessment tool so that she can decide on a starting point for working with this student.

Next we discuss how to teach research to English Learners. I recommend starting with a lesson on note taking, followed by a lesson on paraphrasing, a lesson on plagiarism, and a lesson on citations and why they are important.

Listen next week for part 2 of this coaching session.

What you will hear about in today’s coaching session:

• Resources and strategies for  teaching newcomers in a mixed proficiency classroom
• Informal assessment tools that can be used to see what newcomers actually know
• Lessons to teach EL students before and during research projects

Resources

As mentioned in the episode, I am linking some useful resources!

• ESL Teacher Support - 1:1 coaching session with Ieva Grauslys (©Simply Ieva) 
• ESL Teaching Roadmap -  membership community for middle and high school ESL/ELL teachers. As a thank you for listening, use code ESLPODCAST for 10% off when you join
• 25 Authentic Speaking Activities for Your ESL Classroom
• Simply Ieva ESL Teachers Pay Teachers Store
• Teachable Platform - Courses and Workshops
• Follow me on Instagram 
• Join the Simply Ieva Facebook Group 
• Simply Ieva Youtube Channel

You may also be interested in:

• Episode 36: How to set up your mixed-proficiency classroom for success
• Episode 37: 3 Activities That Work Fantastically Well in Mixed-Proficiency Classroom
• Writing Vocabulary Posters
• Romeo and Juliet meets West Side story lesson
• Inside th USA textbook (Affiliate link)
• I Want to Learn English (Affiliate link)

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