I started Simply Ieva to mostly find answers for myself, and in the process, I learned that there are so many ESL teachers asking those same questions!
Upon some reflection, I came to a realization that there are three broad categories that we all keep circling back to:
- How to make effective connections with families and our colleagues alike
- How to teach newcomers (all grades)
- How to help English learners in the mainstream classroom (especially middle and high school)
That is all we ask. All the time.
And since the new school year is fast approaching, our need-to-know level is rising as well.
So here are some quick and easy to implement tips that you can utilize right away.
Making connections with families
If you ask what ESL teachers do, there is no one-word, phrase or even a sentence answer. In my blog post about the actual responsibilities of the ESL teacher, you can learn more here.
But there are a few things that are a must for us:
- Keeping in touch with our students’ families
- Collaborating with other teachers
- Knowing where we stand, what we stand for – being advocates for both ourselves and our population. In other words, having our own brand
Intentionally planning for making initial connections and a follow-up plan with families and colleagues makes all the difference in the ESL/ELL world. Here are some tips from my own experience and other ESL teachers.
Answer these questions:
- What means of communication will I use to reach out to families?
- How often will I communicate with them?
- What language will be used for communication?
These are just a few general questions, but they are important. Many districts use email and phone apps like Remind to communicate with the families. However, in the ESL world we sometimes need to use what the parents are most familiar with – iMessage or WhatsApp.
Some families are used to school and teachers handling everything that is related to the education of their children, while others want to be in touch with you as frequently as possible.
And of course, the language of communication is important. Translators – both online and actual – are essential to ensure that we have a successful communication with the families of our students.
Creating and keeping connections with ourselves, the families or our students and regular education teachers is also the topic that gets its own day – in fact, we start off the summit with it on Day 1 of The Confident ESL Teacher Summit. Our wonderful speakers share their wisdom in how we can make connections with both the parents and our colleagues alike. All for the success of our students.
Teaching newcomers
I write a lot about ESL newcomers. They are one of my favorite groups to teach – challenging, and so rewarding! But embarking on the journey of teaching them can sometimes be choppy.
As ESL teachers, we’ve heard this mantra of teaching newcomers before: make a connection with your students. But how, you ask? Here are a few simple ways (and don’t be fooled – simple doesn’t always mean easy:)
- learn how to pronounce their name
- use lots of body language
- Give them a first day/week/month toolkit that will help them orientate themselves in their new school
- Use Google translate (or other translation app)
- Pictures of people, places and school objects
- Repeat everything more than 7 times. It may feel uncomfortable, but your newcomers need to hear the word and how it is used multiple times in order for them to finally be able to use it themselves.
These bite-size tips will help you any time you have a new English learner.
To learn even more, join us over at The Confident ESL Teacher Summit, where we have an entire day 2 of this 3-day event dedicated to newcomers.
Helping English learners in the mainstream classroom
As we know, ESL teachers teach language through content. More often than not, we have to be knowledgeable in multiple subjects. While there are tons of stories from my own experience on poorly worded math problems, complicated social studies concepts that do not resonate with those who have no clue about American history, or long-winded test questions on something quite simple and straight-forward, here are a few of the tips that have helped both me and my colleagues TREMENDOUSLY.
English learners in math
Whether you are good at math, or not, is irrelevant in this situation. The reality of an ESL teacher’s job is that you will have to teach the language of math.
There are a couple of things to consider for starters.
- Most of the world uses a metric system. America uses imperial. Take the time to acknowledge that and give help where needed. (Not proud of it, but when someone says “two inches” to me, I still have no concept of how long or short that is…)
- In math, there are so many polysemic words (those with many meanings)! For example: table, column, block, etc. This provides a perfect opportunity for you to teach these words in context, and ask students to notice how they are used in different classes as well.
English learners in social studies
Social studies is one of the most challenging subjects for our English learners. Again, an ESL teacher’s job is to pay attention to the language of social studies as well as use specific strategies to bring this content area to life.
- Past tense verbs are very prevalent in a social studies text. Therefore, it provides a great context for teaching past tense.
- Use maps. A lot of English learners have difficulty finding their bearings in their new town or state, so expecting them to know the names of states or where they are located is not really fair.
- Build background knowledge before EVERYTHING. A lot of English learners have difficulty with names of prominent figures and locations and why they are important. And many have no idea why and how American history is so closely related with British, French and Spanish nations.
English learners in language arts
Language arts can sometimes be a tricky class. An ESL teacher’s input in an ELA class is invaluable.
Here are a couple of ways how you can help your English learners in this content class.
- Consider different ways of presenting the same material.
- If they are not yet able to read the entire text, could they read a sentence or a passage and then demonstrate understanding?
- If they are not able to read yet, maybe they can watch a video of the same with captions on?
- Break information down into manageable chunks. For example: one slide – one concept; answer choices that are worded simply/in short manageable sentences using previously learned vocabulary.
English learners in science
Last, but certainly not least, is the question: how can we bring the content of science to our English learners in a comprehensible way? What can both the science and ESL teacher do in this case?
Here are my two top tips:
- Frontload vocabulary. Vocabulary is a biggie, so teaching a few words a day and then revisiting them in different contexts will go a long way.
- Extract what your ELLs absolutely need to know, and let go of the rest.
There are more subjects that our English learners take a school, and each of them comes with its own set of challenges.
The strategies suggested here can be applied in other subject areas as well.
The second annual Confident ESL Teacher Summit will be taking place on August 9-11, 2022. This three-day virtual event is always jam-packed with valuable and actionable information so make sure to sign up before it is too late! Click here to do so.
Day 1 is called Connect – all about making connections with our students, their families, our colleagues and ourselves
Day 2 is Embark – all about teaching newcomers! What to teach them first, reading and writing, classroom systems, scope and sequence and more!
Day 3 is called Ascend. This is when we talk about working with higher proficiency level students, students in the mainstream classroom, WIDA standards in action and so much more!
