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News and Updates
Wonderful Local Resources
5/16/08
While I am able to find plenty of resources from around the web to inform us in our work with English language learners, we also have wonderful resources here in Burlington. Check out the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program and read one of their recent newsletters. The newsletters provide information on volunteering as well as stories by refugees about their experiences resettling in a new country. An example of a such a story is featured as a slideshow on the Christian Science Monitor website about one of our Home School Liaisons, Jean Luc Dushime.
Bhutanese Arriving in Burlington
4/30/08
Bhutanese refugees are the latest group to be resettled in Burlington. To learn more about this new cultural group, check out this article from the UNHCR website. Another article by Mary Ann Zehr in EdWeek includes comments from an ESL teacher in Burlington.
Teaching and Learning the Language of Math
3/6/08
As any learner of English and math can attest, the language of mathematics can be tricky to understand. Suzanne Irujo has written a series of articles on this topic in the ELL Outlook newsletter that offers teachers a good grounding in the issue of the language of math. Read "Teaching Math to English Language Learners: Can Research Help?", then read "So Just What Is the Academic Language of Mathematics?", and then read "Putting It All Together: Integrating Academic Math Language into Math Teaching".
Not Lost in Translation
2/5/08
An NPR story highlights a program in Tucson where bilingual students learn how to be translators and interpreters. Students learn the value of the language skills and gain valuable skills toward becoming translators and interpreters in the community.
Site of the Day
1/24/08
The 'Site of the Day' is KS1 Bitesize, a learning site for English learners from the BBC. It is appropriate for ELLs in grades K-5, and students building their skills in math and reading in grades 6-8. There are fun cartoon characters, great music, and games in maths and literacy.
Focus on English Language Learners and Reading
1/14/08
Reading the OELA Newsline this morning, I found some great resources about teaching reading to ELLs. The International Reading Association (IRA) has a resources page for literacy and ELLs with links to articles published in their journals, like Reading Teacher and Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy. These publications often have great articles focusing on the needs of ELLs learning to read and write.
Challenge of Becoming Literate in a Second Language
1/10/08
Teaching ELLs to read and write in a language that is not their primary language is a challenge. Matching the letters of the English alphabet with the correct phonemes is a challenge for all students, but especially for students who have learned different sounds and letters or who have never learned to read and write at all. The Teaching Diverse Learners website discusses these challenges and more on its website on elementary literacy for ELLs.
CREATE Webinar
1/8/08
Diane August will be featured in a webinar sponsored by CREATE and WestEd on Thursday, 1/10. Her topic is, "Building Oral Language into the Basal". Diane August was the principal investigator for and co-editor of Developing Literacy in Second Language Learners: Report of the National Literacy Panel on Language Minority Children and Youth.
WIDA Resource Guide
1/7/08
The WIDA Consortium has updated the WIDA English Language Proficiency Standards (2007). The Consortium has included more information to help teachers think about how to plan instruction based on the standards. The Consortium has also published a resource guide that better explains the elements of model performance indicators: the language function, the topic, and the support. One section of the guide shows teachers how to do transformations of the model performance indicators, an important skill for teachers to master in their use of the standards.
NEW QUEST UPDATES
1/4/08
With the start of a new year, I'm going to try a new format here on the QUEST site. It will be blog-like, bringing you up to date information on teaching English language learners, without being a full-blown blog. Let me know how it works for you.
Over the break, there was a great article in the NYTimes on a charter school in Georgia with many refugee students. The article was accompanied by a short video and slide show. Very inspiring.
With the end of 2007 and all the lists of the best and worst of the year, Mary Ann Zehr, in her blog Learning the Language, pointed out the website of Larry Ferlazzo, a teacher of ELLs in California. He has a list of the best internet sites for English language learners for the year 2007. Lots of good links there and on Larry's main website. -LW
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