The Essential Guide for Educating Beginning English Learners

Put all English learners on the path to success—right from the start! Beginning English learners are at risk of being lost in a system that doesn′t know how to reach them. With more and more ELs entering U.S. schools every year, educators need to act quickly to create school- and classroom-based programs that work. Veteran educators Debbie Zacarian and Judie Haynes provide templates and tools—along with vignettes illustrating real-world challenges—to help teachers and administrators: Create a welcoming environment for English learners and their families who are unfamiliar with the American education system Reach out to students from literacy and non-literacy-oriented homes Engage parents to become a part of the school community Learn strategies for teaching beginning level ELs across the curriculum Develop instructional models for students with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE) Build sensitive practices for students who have experienced trauma The Essential Guide for Educating Beginning English Learners provides a realistic and comprehensive framework for effectively reaching and teaching this growing population. "This book provides a wonderful look at the complexities of providing newcomers with a welcoming school environment and appropriate instruction." —Michelle DaCosta, Bilingual Resource Teacher Framingham Public Schools, MA "This book gets at the heart of working with beginning ELs and helps educators gain a complete understanding of these students′ needs and the factors that influence them." —Yvonne S. Freeman, Professor of Bilingual Education The University of Texas at Brownsville

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments About the Authors Introduction 1. Seeing the Big Picture 2. Taking a Closer Look 3. Effective Programming for English Learners 4. Selecting Models of Instruction 5. Strengthening Family - School Engagement 6. Teaching Beginners 7. Working With English Learners Who Have Experienced Trauma 8. Teaching English Learners With Limited or Interrupted Formal Education 9. Providing Effective Professional Development References Index

About the Author :
Dr. Debbie Zacarian, founder of Zacarian & Associates, provides professional development, strategic planning, and technical assistance for K-16 educators of culturally and linguistically diverse populations. She has served as an expert consultant for school districts, universities, associations, and organizations including the Massachusetts Parent Information Resource Center and Federation for Children with Special Needs. Debbie has worked with numerous state and local education agencies and written the language assistance programming policies for many rural, suburban, and urban districts.  Debbie served on the faculty of University of Massachusetts-Amherst where she co-wrote and was the co-principal investigator of a National Professional Development grant initiative supporting the professional preparation of educators of multilingual learners.  Debbie also designed and taught courses for pre- and in-service administrators and teachers on culturally responsive teaching and supervision practices, multilingual development, and ethnographic research.  In addition, she served as a program director at the Collaborative for Educational Services where she provided professional development for thousands of educators of multilingual students and partnered with Fitchburg State University in co-writing and enacting a National Professional Development initiative that supported STEM education. Debbie also directed the Amherst Public Schools bilingual and English learner programming where she and the district received state and national honors.  The author of more than 100 publications, her most recent professional books include: Beyond Crises: Overcoming Linguistic and Cultural Inequities in Communities. Schools and Classrooms; Responsive Schooling for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students; Teaching to Empower: taking action to foster student agency, self-confidence, and collaboration; and Teaching to Strengths: Supporting Students living with Trauma, Violence and Chronic Stress.   Judie Haynes is a freelance professional development provider and teacher with 28 years’ experience in teaching English as a second language. She has published six books, including Getting Started With English Language Learners (ASCD, 2007) and Teaching English Language Learners Across the Content Areas (ASCD, 2010). Judie also contributed chapters to Integrating the ESL Standards Into Classroom Practice, Grades K-2 (TESOL, 2000) and Authenticity in Language Classroom and Beyond (TESOL, 2010). She was also a columnist for TESOL′s Essential Teacher. Judie is the editor and owner of everythingESL.net, a website for teachers of English learners. She is cofounder and moderator of #ELLCHAT, an online chat for teachers of English learners. She provides keynote addresses and workshops to TESOL affiliates and school districts all over the United States.

Review :
“More than ever, educators are facing large numbers of English Learners (ELs), each coming with specific needs. The authors present a comprehensive text of how educators can and should work with these students and their families. Many of the strategies presented can be applied to other students as well. This book will be a valuable asset to every educator who wants each of his or her students to succeed.” “This book provides a wonderful look at the complexities of providing newcomers with a welcoming school environment and appropriate instruction. The book clearly reveals that the needs of these students requires more than ‘just good teaching.’” “This book will be of great interest to all educators of English learners because we all have beginners who arrive at any time during the school year, in our various schools and districts. The authors skillfully use scenarios to connect the theory to the practice and helps create a framework in which to plan for programming as well as classroom instruction.” “The Essential Guide for Educating Beginning English Learners isn’t your run-of-the-mill, boring professional development book for educators. With accurate portrayals of real-world situations that will make readers shake their fists in anger and smile at successes, this book is a must-have for improving EL identification and curriculum in any district.” "The Essential Guide for Educating Beginning English Learners gets at the heart of what is key for working with beginning ELs and helps educators gain a complete understanding of these students’ needs and the factors that influence them." "Debbie Zacarian and Judie Haynes joined forces again and created a much needed, comprehensive text in The Essential Guide for Educating Beginning English Learners. Students who are new to the English language and often new to the United States and the US school system frequently encounter complex challenges, so their teachers need to be prepared and ready to help. This book will serve as an indispensable resource for teachers to tackle this task, and to do so with knowledge, skills, confidence, and advocacy for new English Learners!" "The Essential Guide for Educating Beginning English Learners is a direct, concise and straight-forward volume for practitioners serving newly arrived English Language Learners. It captures the assets and resources beginning ELLs bring into the classroom and focuses on effective educational responses for each group of beginning English learners, built around a solid understanding of key learner characteristics, including literacy levels, cultural characteristics and other important learner factors that may come into play such as poverty and/or trauma experienced. The authors have created a useful working guide, supported by plenty of helpful examples and tools, which schools can use to facilitate Professional Development Communities, following a structured book study process." "At a time when the U.S. is experiencing record number of English learners, many of whom enter the country not only as beginners in English language, but with a wide range of other needs as well, this carefully researched, practical guide will serve as the primary support for both teachers and administrators seeking to do a more comprehensive job of responding to what is arguably their most vulnerable student population. Zacarian and Haynes provide a close examination of the diversity within the group of beginner ELs, who are often lumped together based on language proficiency alone."