The ESL Teaching Podcast

In today’s episode, I am chatting with Karen Emerson, who is a friend and a fellow ELL teacher in the town that I live in. She works with the youngest English learners - grades K-1. I met Karen through one of our monthly state EL meetings, and we hit it off right away. I could sense her passion for working with English learners and her creativity in approaching teaching, especially newcomers! What and how to teach newcomers has been by far the most frequently asked question in my career. So when I was thinking of recording episodes about newcomer teaching, she was the first person that came to mind. I think as teachers, we always want to take a little peek into our colleague’s classroom. Sometimes we want to know where to start when we are feeling overwhelmed, sometimes we want to get inspired and sometimes we just want to know that we are on the right path. This episode is exactly about that - Karen shares her insights and ideas for teaching newcomer English learners and you can hear the wisdom and lighthearted humor in everything she does. I had so much fun talking with her, and I hope you can feel it too.

Here is what you will hear:

• How Karen became an ELL teacher - a story that is not exactly a typical one.
• Karen's approach to teaching newcomers any time of year:
  • how she helps them feel welcome
  • how she collaborates with classroom teachers
  • the WHAT and the HOW of teaching newcomers
• How she keeps in contact with newcomer families
• and so much more!

Below you will find useful resources.

• EL Newcomer Teaching Compass (grades 6-12)
• 25 Authentic Speaking Activities for Your ESL Classroom 
• Simply Ieva Teachers Pay Teachers store

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In today’s episode, I am chatting with my friend Carissa Ford about teaching speaking to our English learners. Speaking is such a personal aspect of language learning, and that is just one of the challenges our multilingual students face. Carissa and I dive into the best practices in teaching speaking from tasks to activities and lessons to projects. You’ll hear about the differences of teaching speaking to newcomer English learners and to long term English learners as well as tips for mainstream classroom teachers. Carissa Ford is a former high school ESL teacher where she taught newcomers and long term English learners. She also spent four years in Mongolia training preservice teachers, hosting professional development workshops, and leading a language program. Carissa currently works as a curriculum writer creating digital content for multilingual learner programs.

This was such a fun interview, and I hope you can feel that as well while listening. 

Here is what you will hear in this episode:

• Carissa's story - how she decided to become an ELL teacher and what keeps her going
• reasons why speaking is such a challenging aspect of language learning for most students
• creative and easy-to-implement speaking activities 
• ideas on how mainstream teachers can seamlessly implement speaking into their daily lessons

Below you will find useful resources.

• Charities you can donate to help Ukrainian people:
  • Blue-Yellow
  • Unicef 
  • St.Javelin clothing, stickers, etc. - all proceeds from purchases go to support vulnerable people in Ukraine.
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• Blog post - 3 Fantastic Speaking Activities That Will Make Your ESL Class More Exciting
• Teaching Absolute Beginners: An ESL Teacher's Handbook
• 25 Authentic Speaking Activities for Your ESL Classroom 
• Simply Ieva Teachers Pay Teachers store
• The 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. 

Support the show

In today’s episode,  I wanted to talk about the mental and emotional health of teachers and processing emotions in difficult times. We always seek information and want to better our knowledge of how to support our English learners - and all students. But I wanted to honor teachers as humans and not just as vessels of knowledge that are expected to show up and perform no matter what. The war in Ukraine has brought up some raw emotions for many people around the world. In this episode, I will share a little bit of the history of my country and how it relates to the war in the Ukraine, then I will explain why this is important to me, and lastly, I will share some tips that have helped me cope and I hope will help you too. I find that when I am centered, I can show up better for my family and my students. It is my hope that you will find this episode helpful and can come back to it whenever you need encouragement and simple ways to return to yourself.

Here is what you will hear in this episode:

• A little bit of history of Lithuania and how it relates to the current war in Ukraine
• why this is important to me and how stress in general affects our teaching
• definition of radical-self care 
• five ways you can help yourself come back to center

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

• Charities you can donate to help Ukrainian people:
  • Blue-Yellow
  • Unicef 
  • St.Javelin clothing, stickers, etc. - all proceeds from purchases go to support vulnerable people in Ukraine.
• Article Radical Self-Care to Protect Your Overall Well-Being
• Blog post - 5 Ways You can Beat Teacher Burnout
• Teaching Absolute Beginners: An ESL Teacher's Handbook
• 25 Authentic Speaking Activities for Your ESL Classroom 
• The 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. 

Support the show

In today’s episode, I want to chat with you about a special group of students - those who have limited or interrupted formal education, otherwise known as SLIFE. 
Chances are many of us have encountered a student from this group at least once. And with everything that is going on in the world right now, we are likely to see more and more need to help these children that have found themselves in difficult situations due to no fault of their own. 
So today, I will share with you everything I know about SLIFE students - who they are, what they need, how they learn, how we can teach them as well as give you five does and don’ts to utilize - or NOT - in the classroom. 

Here is what you will hear in this episode:

• Who SLIFE students are
• What they need
• Three steps to help them
• 5 dos and don'ts of teachers with SLIFE in the classroom. 

As always, below you will find related resources that will help support your ELs and save you planning time!

• MALP Education website
• Blog post - Teaching Slife Students: What You Need to Know
• Teaching Absolute Beginners: An ESL Teacher's Handbook
• 25 Authentic Speaking Activities for Your ESL Classroom 
• The 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. 

Support the show

In today’s episode, I am chatting with my dear friend Susan Patterson about text engineering and how we all can help make content accessible to our English learners. 

Susan is a district Multilingual/ELD Teacher on Special Assignment in California, which is a fancy title for doing a little bit of everything! But mostly, she develops professional learning around best practices for multilingual students in her district and supports ELD coaches as they go through their own coaching cycles at their sites. She also has her own blog, ell-lady.com, and creates materials for high school ESL teachers in her membership, My MLL Mentor.

Here is what you will hear in this episode:

• We will talk about the necessary mindset shift that needs to take place for teachers when we see the need to adapt materials;
• Susan will talk about simple ways both EL and content area teachers can tweak a text without watering it down in just a few minutes
• We will share resources that both of us have found extremely helpful in bringing literary works to our EL students. 

Follow Susan at:

• website: https://www.ell-lady.com/blog
• G/FB: @my.mll.mentor   

As always, below you will find related resources that will help support your ELs and save you planning time!

• Article: Demystifying Complex Texts: What are "Complex" Texts and How Can We Ensure ELLs and MLs Can Access Them?
• Simply Ieva ESL website
• Teaching Absolute Beginners: An ESL Teacher's Handbook
• 25 Authentic Speaking Activities for Your ESL Classroom 
• The 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. 

Support the show

Can you relate to any or all of the next statements? 

• I am tasked with teaching ESL/ELL newcomers, but my district doesn’t have a curriculum for that. 
• I teach middle and high schoolers - and that is an added layer to the lack of curriculum . 
• I teach mixed level classes - where do I find ready made lessons?

Being an ESL teacher usually involves a lot of moving parts. 

In order to ensure our students’ success, we must be well-versed in language acquisition theory and practice, collaborate with our colleagues, scaffold our teaching to make the content accessible and to work with mixed-proficiency levels. 

In addition, we create our own lessons, juggle lack of curriculum or grapple with one that we can clearly see doesn’t work for our English learners.

With all of this in mind, It can be hard to find a curriculum that meets all of the above mentioned demands. But I wanted to offer a different perspective. 

And in today's episode I will share with you a three-step roadmap that you can take to help your ELL students. 

Here is what you will hear:

• How I myself needed a structure, a framework, a roadmap of sorts and how I began to pay attention to my own questions and those that other teachers asked.  
• The three  questions that I hear over and over again regarding teaching English learners
• The simple realization that the answer to these questions is really THE Roadmap. 

As always, below you will find related resources that will help support your ELs and save you planning time!

• The ESL Teaching Roadmap - membership community for middle and high school ESL/ELL teachers.  Click HERE for more information and o join. 
• Simply Ieva ESL website - post about what to teach newcomers first. 
• Teaching Absolute Beginners: An ESL Teacher's Handbook
• 25 Authentic Speaking Activities for Your ESL Classroom 

Connect with me:

Instagram - @simplyievaesl
Join my free Facebook group
Like my Facebook page

 

Support the show

In today’s episode, I wanted to talk about the impact we make as ESL teachers. We know we are an important part of our English learners’ day, but what about reaching out to your colleagues and the community? 

I will share two ways you can start establishing your name both in your school and in the community. You’ll learn how one simple email has turned into a ripple effect across the district, and what you can do to help put your EL program on the map.

Here is what you will hear:

• First, I 'll talk about how a simple email about halal dietary restrictions has led us to begin writing our monthly Cultural Tidbits, as we call it. 
• Then, I will share about what we do to engage our EL community - parents and students alike. 
• And finally, I talk about some takeaways for one simple ingredient of making an impact in your school and community. 

As always, below you will find related resources that will help support your ELs and save you planning time!

• Simply Ieva ESL website
• Teaching Absolute Beginners: An ESL Teacher's Handbook
• 25 Authentic Speaking Activities for Your ESL Classroom 
• The 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. 

Support the show

In today’s episode, I am chatting with my dear friend Courtney Morgan about  collaboration between EL and general education teachers. This topic is so important, yet there are so many questions about what collaboration looks like, especially in districts that have a smaller EL program,  the steps both sides can take to help English learners, as well as the mindset shift that needs to take place.
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Courtney Morgan is an English Learner Specialist and teacher, living near Asheville, North Carolina, where she loves having the mountains at her doorstep. After 16 years as an elementary classroom teacher in districts large and small, Courtney shifted into her current role to focus her efforts on supporting multilingual students. Through her business, The All-Access Classroom, Courtney equips gen. ed. teachers to confidently make their lessons accessible to English learners.
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Here is what you will hear in this episode:

• Top collaboration tips for teachers - both those who are ELL teachers and those who are classroom teachers
• The answer to the question: What would be the first step for effective collaboration?
• Ideas for some of the best scaffolds general education teachers can utilize when helping their English learners - examples for both elementary and middle and high school 

An important step for teachers in lesson planning with English learners in mind is to include language objectives. Courtney has a simple template that can guide the process of choosing objectives and scaffolds, and she is offering it to all of my listeners for free! You can find it at www.theallaccessclassroom.com/objectives

Follow Courtney at:

• website: www.theallaccessclassroom.com
• G/FB: @theallaccessclassroom   

As always, below you will find related resources that will help support your ELs and save you planning time!

• Simply Ieva ESL website
• Teaching Absolute Beginners: An ESL Teacher's Handbook
• 25 Authentic Speaking Activities for Your ESL Classroom 
• The 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. 

Support the show

Are we allowed to use the students’ first language in the classroom? If so, how much and for how long? I can translate all the materials, but where does English learning come in? 

In this episode, I will be sharing tips not only for ESL teachers, but also for content area teachers who have English learners in the classroom. So if you think your colleagues will benefit, please share this episode with them.

Here is what you will hear: 

•  First, we will go over the challenges of using L1 and a few reasons why students would want and even need to use their first language in the classroom;
• Then, we will look into ways that monolingual teachers in English only context can incorporate students’ first language in their instruction as well as will learn about the term translanguaging;
• Finally, I will share some ideas for assessment and tips for how to empower your students to become more confident in their new language, English.

As always, below you will find related resources that will help support your ELs and save you planning time!

• Simply Ieva ESL website
• Teaching Absolute Beginners: An ESL Teacher's Handbook
• 25 Authentic Speaking Activities for Your ESL Classroom 
• The 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. 

Follow me on:
Instagram - @simplyievaesl
Facebook page - @simplyieva
Facebook group - Helping ESL/ELL Teachers K-12
Twitter - @SimplyIeva

Support the show

Choice boards in the ESL classroom?

The idea is great, but how can I implement it? I have a mixed-level classroom, or I work with ESL newcomers, or - insert your own situation. 

In this episode, I  share some ideas on how you can actually implement choice boards in your ESL classroom, and feel like both you and your students are actually getting somewhere. 

Here is what we talk about:

• What choice boards are, why it is a good idea to use them with English learners and what challenges they might pose in the beginning
• I shared how using choice boards looks like in my classroom:
  • How to assign them
  • How to use them as weekly assignments, bell ringers or community building tools
• We also went over a few examples of specific choice boards: for example, those where your students practice all four language domains, or just writing, or just vocabulary.  
• And finally, you'll hear about how you can use choice boards with your EL newcomers. 

Make sure to subscribe to this podcast so you can find it easily and be informed when new episodes are released!

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The celebrations of the launch of the ESL Teaching Podcast, are still going on till January 25th!

We are giving away three $25 TpT gift cards and a grand prize of one one year membership to The ESL Teaching Roadmap membership community. 

To enter, follow these steps:

1. Follow, rate and write a review of your favorite episode on Apple Podcasts.
2. Screenshot it before you submit (as it takes some time for it to appear in the feed) and email the screenshot to [email protected] or Direct Message me on Instagram @simplyievaesl. 
3. As a bonus entry, share the screenshot of my podcast or your favorite episode on instagram stories and tag me!
4. The giveaway ends on January 25th, 2022. 

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Related resources that  were mentioned in the podcast and that will help support your ELs and save you planning time!

• How to Use Choice Boards in Your ESL Classroom - the video
• Resources from Teachers Pay Teachers:
  • Activity choice board with worksheets
  • Writing choice board with worksheets
• The ESL Teaching Roadmap - membership community for middle and high school ESL/ELL teachers

Follow me on:
Instagram - @simplyievaesl
Facebook page - @simplyieva
Facebook group - Helping ESL/ELL Teachers K-12
Twitter - @SimplyIeva

Support the show