Our Blog

The Compliments Project is a simple and powerful exercise that has really taken off in many classrooms! Basically, each student in class takes a turn being in what’s called the “hot seat.” So while the student sits, facing away from the board, his or her classmates take turns writing positive statements … Read More

Sometimes the terms related to bilingual education and biliteracy can be confusing. On the Wikipedia website, bilingualism is someone who speaks fluently in two languages and biliteracy is when a person doesn’t only speak two languages but can read and write in them, too. … Read More

Title III and parent involvement with English learners are important components in helping the nation’s ELLs to succeed. As amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 (ESSA), the NCELA organization, which works to support the mission of the Office of English Language Acquisition … Read More

Giving ELLs the academic support they need to be successful is critical if the educational system in the US is going to help English language learners to become literate in English, not to mention fluent, according to a 2013 American Educator journal article. … Read More

50,000 words by high school graduation, that’s a whole lot of words, says the Teaching Channel in an article about academic vocabulary and English language learners. Yet that’s the challenge ELLs face if they want to stay abreast with their native English-speaking peers … Read More

There is ample evidence in both the field of education and science that a strong first language transfers into a strong second language. Recent meta-analyses, in fact, show that educational programs that implement the use of English language learners’ (ELLs) home language result in academic success … Read More

With the enactment of the new Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the focus of advocacy now turns to effective implementation of the law to ensure every child has the ability to reach their full potential, says the National PTA in regards to all roads lead to academic success for ESSA. … Read More

The 10 top resources for parent engagement with English learners (ELs) on the following websites are some of the best places to start looking when teachers and staff want to learn more about getting parents more involved. Here’s a brief breakdown of each … Read More

For many reasons, family literacy is important. One of the biggest, however, is that until members within the family unit can successfully read and write, it makes it difficult to break the poverty cycle. According to a Place of Our Own, an educational website dedicated to caregivers, family literacy is when family members improve their … Read More

Even though English language learners (ELLs), particularly Latinos, are the biggest and fastest growing segment of students in the US, ELL parents still contend with numerous barriers in either becoming involved or being informed about what’s going on at their child’s school, says an article on empowering ELL families through parental involvement. … Read More