Resolutions
Policy Brief: English Language Learners
ELL students are a diverse group that offers challenges and opportunities to U.S. education and to English language arts teachers in particular. This NCTE Policy Research Brief addresses some common myths and provides research-based recommendations for effective ELL instruction.
Learn MoreBlog Posts
Culturally Responsive Teaching in Today’s Classrooms
Member Valentina Gonzalez offers a number of recommendations to ensure a culturally responsive classroom and respecting each student’s unique culture.
ESL, ELL, Generation 1.5—Why Are These Terms Important?
The authors of a new strand of NCTE’s Principles in Practice Imprint, Teaching English Language Learners, explain why they (mostly) use the term English language learner in these books and then share a collaboratively-written glossary of commonly used terms.
Books
Beyond “Teaching to the Test”: Rethinking Accountability and Assessment for English Language Learners by Betsy Gilliland and Shannon Pella gives teachers the background and strategies to make their teaching and support equitable for ELLs. Examining how teachers can support learners’ reading, writing, and academic language development, and illustrated with examples of real teachers at work, the authors explain teaching for accountability, formative and summative assessment, and preparation for high-stakes testing, as well as provide suggestions for teaching, guiding questions for discussion, and resource recommendations.
Watch a video of Principles in Practice editor Cathy Fleischer talking with the authors about their book.
Read a sample chapter, “So They May Learn and Thrive: Accountability for Equity.”
Community Literacies en Confianza: Learning from Bilingual After-School Programs by Steven Alvarez directly addresses teachers who are learning about emergent bilingual students. The author offers ideas for approaching, engaging, and partnering with students’ communities to design culturally sustaining pedagogies that productively use the literacy abilities students bring to schools.
Watch a video of Principles in Practice editor Cathy Fleischer talking with Alvarez about his book.
Read a sample chapter, “Community Literacy Pedagogies: From a Translingual View.”
Journal Resources
Issue Theme: Biliteracy in Schools and Communities
Language Arts, May 2016
"Collaborative Translation: Negotiating Student Investment in Culturally Responsive Pedagogy"
Language Arts, July 2016
The authors explore the ways middle school emergent bilingual students negotiated their language identities during participation in a culturally responsive intervention.
"'Education without Boundaries': Literacy Pedagogies and Human Rights"
Language Arts, September 2016
This column examines the possibilities and critiques of human rights thinking and its implications for literacy and participatory research.
"Critical Texts in Literacy Teacher Education: Living Inquiries into Racial Justice and Immigration"
Language Arts, November 2016
This article explores the challenges and possibilities of pedagogies that center non-mainstream perspectives and make space for student inquiry in K–8 and teacher education classrooms.
"Diciendo cuentos/ Telling Stories: Learning from and about the Community Cultural Wealth of Latina Mamás through Latino Children’s Literature"
Language Arts, September 2017
This study demonstrates the potential of using Latino children’s literature to create a more empowered community of immigrant mothers.
"Migrant Students Scaffolding and Writing Their Own Stories: From Socioculturally Relevant Enabling Mentor Texts to Collaborative Student Narratives"
Voices from the Middle, September 2015
This article describes an innovative summer literacy program for intermediate and middle level children of migrant farmworkers.
"Courageous Literacy: Linguistically Responsive Teaching with English Language Learners"
Voices from the Middle, March 2017
This article explores what linguistically responsive teaching includes and how teachers can develop the skills necessary to help English language learners better prepare for the critical literacy demands of the twenty-first century.
"Behind the Acronym: Multilingual Learners with Interrupted Formal Education"
English Journal, July 2015
“Lingua Anglia: Bridging Language and Learners” discusses critical, transformative, and powerful ways to support students’ acquisition of Standard English.
"Using Writing Workshop with English Language Learners"
English Journal, January 2016
“Lingua Anglia: Bridging Language and Learners” discusses critical, transformative, and powerful ways to support students’ acquisition of Standard English.
"Supporting Second Language Acquisition with Twenty-First-Century Literacies"
English Journal, July 2016
“Lingua Anglia: Bridging Language and Learners” discusses critical, transformative, and powerful ways to support students’ acquisition of Standard English.
3 Strategies for Reaching Language Learners in Literacy Workshops
Explore ideas to engage and instruct students in reading, writing, and language/word study literacy workshops even when you don’t speak the language of the student.
Confidence in Community Literacies: Bilingual Writers Reading the World
K-12 English language arts teachers can expand their knowledge of the literacy practices of English language learning students when they engage with their students’ communities in meaningful ways.
Making Meaning from Text: Modeling Comprehension for English Language Learners
Explore the difference between skilled readers and strategic readers and the role that the teacher must play in modeling and facilitating comprehension for students learning English and learning in English.