The Latino Family Literacy Project provides workshops and webinars for school teachers and school staff for Parent Involvement. Staff will learn how to provide a culturally relevant model for parent involvement, family reading and vocabulary development.

The following is a list of useful resources and programs for ELL students living in New Mexico.

State of New Mexico Informational Resources:

• New Mexico Public Education Department: http://ped.state.nm.us/ped/index.html
• ELL Support Page: http://ped.state.nm.us/ped/Bilingual_index.html
• WIDA English Language Development Standards: https://www.wida.us/standards/eld.aspx
• WIDA (World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment) is an organization comprised of a number of different states throughout the country dedicated to raising the standards of bilingual education policies and monitoring the progress and development of ELL’s in the United States.
• New Mexico State Board Learning Standards Assessments: http://ped.state.nm.us/AssessmentAccountability/AssessmentEvaluation/index.html
• Title III Information: http://www.ncela.us/t3sis/NewMexico.php
• New Mexico English Proficiency Assessment Standards: http://ped.state.nm.us/AssessmentAccountability/AssessmentEvaluation/index.html

Educational Programs and Learning Resources:

• The New Mexico Association for Bilingual Education – The NMABE is an advocacy organization dedicated to promoting bilingual education for grades K-12 throughout the state. They focus on professional development, linguistic diversity, and increased resources for bilingual programs as well as research application and dissemination: http://nmabe.net/
• New Mexico Education Association – The New Mexico affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers which works to advocate for and establish a standard of success and excellence in public schools within the United States: http://www.nea.org/home/49832.htm
• Lectura Books – Publishers of award-winning English and Spanish language development books for infants to teenagers, including the 2014 Moonbeam Award Winner for Best Children’s Book, (Spanish) Boy Zorro and the Bully.
• Lectura Books Professional Development Workshops – Training workshops designed to assist teachers, aides, and parental coordinators with implementing aspects of the Latino Family Literacy Project, which meets compliance with Title I and Title III Parent involvement initiatives: https://www.latinoliteracy.com/workshops/
• Family Phonics Workbooks: An English vocabulary program for parents and children learning English, taught using a simple method to teach parents strong English vocabulary and proper pronunciation through the use of phonics: https://www.lecturabooks.com/family-phonics-workbooks/

If you liked this blog, visit out our Facebook and Twitter page. We frequently post updated and relevant information related to ELLs.

The post ELL Student Resources and Support in New Mexico appeared first on The Latino Family Literacy Project.

Teaching is universally a rewarding but challenging job. For ELL teachers, a unique set of challenges present themselves.

Students with Diverse Abilities and Needs

A current ELL classroom in the U.S. can contain students of varying countries of origin, English speaking and writing abilities, and cultural identities. An ELL teacher has to assess, get to know, teach, and support all of these students, often on a tight schedule. In the Colorín Colorado article, Oral Language Development and ELLs: 5 Challenges and Solutions, Lindsey Moses Guccione shares the importance of differentiation as a powerful tool for ELL teachers taking on this challenge, “Differentiation is the key to effective instruction for all students. Students of varying proficiency levels can learn the same content when the teacher provides a wide range of learning opportunities for students with different academic and linguistic needs.”

Lack of Resources and Training

The number of ELL students in the U.S. has been growing rapidly; however, schools and teachers are simply underprepared. The Migration Policy Institute states that over the last 30 years nearly 30 million immigrants have settled in the U.S., many of them bringing families and children. In order to provide differentiated instruction to their students, ELL teachers, and indeed all classroom teachers, specialists, and administrators working with ELLs, need greater access to high quality, research based ELL instruction professional development and assessment tools. “Lessons Learned: New Teachers Talk About Their Jobs, Challenges, and Long-Range Plans” is a report from the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality and Public Agenda that surveyed new teachers dealing with students of increasingly diverse backgrounds and abilities. This report finds that new teachers, particularly in less affluent areas, felt under-supported in dealing with student diversity, and that “teacher preparation programs and new teacher support systems need to be reexamined and updated for the 21^st century.”

Poor Communication Systems

Parent and community involvement and parent-school cooperation has been repeatedly proven to benefit student academic success, and this is true for ELL students as well. A National Education Association (NEA) policy brief shares that in a 2004 study, California teachers reported having a serious issue with “poor communication among students, teachers, parents, and the community.” Because ELL teachers are often dealing with families from multiple cultural backgrounds and languages of origin, successful and meaningful communication can be particularly challenging, though not impossible. School systems can provide translators, opportunities for teachers and families to meet, and structures that support collaboration for improved communication between ELL teachers, the greater school community, their students, and the students’ families.

Helping ELL teachers to face these challenges has to be a concerted community endeavor. In their article, “Challenges confronting teachers of English language learners,” Thi Diem Hang Khonga and Eisuke Saitobwhile say that while strong ELL teacher education programs will help ELL teachers face these challenges, “concerted efforts by educators, local and central administrators, academics, local communities, and lawmakers are necessary” as well.

Seeing the increase of students from many diverse backgrounds underscores the need for multicultural books. Multicultural books allow students of different backgrounds to be able to relate to the story and be more inclined to read and retain the information.

Lectura books provides award-winning multicultural books. Their books are a great tool for students of different backgrounds. The multicultural stories help to engage not only the students but their parents as well. This encourages more reading and speaking of English at home. Visit Lectura Books YouTube page to see some of their most popular book titles.

The Latino Family Literacy Project are experts in working with Spanish speaking parents and can train your staff to work specifically with parents of diverse backgrounds at your school. The company offers both online webinar training and in person workshops.

Stay updated with the latest information about ELLs and follow our Facebook and Twitter pages. We post new information every day.

The post What Issues do Teachers of ELLs Face? appeared first on The Latino Family Literacy Project.

The following is a list of useful resources and programs for ELL students living in Virginia.

State of Virginia Informational Resources:

• Virginia Department of Education: http://www.doe.virginia.gov/
• ELL Support Page: http://www.doe.virginia.gov/instruction/esl/index.shtml
• WIDA English Language Development Standards: https://www.wida.us/standards/eld.aspx
• WIDA (World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment) is an organization comprised of a number of various states designed to establish and implement bilingual education policies, in addition to the regular monitoring of progress and development of ELL’s in the United States.
• Virginia Proficiency Learning Standards Proficiency Examination Program: http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/test_administration/index.shtml
•  Title III Information: http://www.ncela.us/t3sis/Virginia.php

Educational Programs and Learning Resources:

• Virginia State Education Association – Regional affiliate of the National Education Association, the biggest education lobby in the United States, tasked with promoting legislation to support teachers and educators and make new funding resources available to the education profession: http://www.nea.org/home/49818.htm
• Virginia Parent Information Resource Center – PEATC (Parent Educational Advocacy Training Center) – A federal program designed for promoting successful teaching partnerships between parents, teachers, and school administrations to improve the educational structure for children in grades K-12 from all backgrounds, cultures, ethnicities and/or disabilities: http://www.nationalpirc.org/directory/VA.html
• Lectura Books Professional Development Workshops – Training workshops designed to assist educators and school administrations with implementing aspects of the Latino Family Literacy Project, which meets compliance with Title I and Title III Parent involvement initiatives: https://www.latinoliteracy.com/workshops/
• Latino Family Literacy Project School and District Staff Development Workshops – Teaching workshops designed for helping parents and teachers alike to help Spanish-speaking children learn English to build their literacy and vocabulary skills, while instructing school districts how to work with Spanish-speaking families in order for their children to excel academically: https://www.lecturabooks.com/professional-development/
• https://www.lecturabooks.com/product/house-literacy-elementary-collection” target=”_blank”>The House of Literacy Book Set – Available in Pre-School and Elementary levels, these collections contain of books are designed to help parents of ELLs read to their children in Spanish while providing an opportunity towards improving English language vocabulary skills. These sets encourage parental involvement in the English Language education of their children: https://www.lecturabooks.com/product/house-of-literacy-preschool-collection/

If you liked this blog, visit out our Facebook and Twitter page. We frequently post updated and relevant information related to ELLs.

References

https://www.lecturabooks.com/product/house-literacy-elementary-collection/

http://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/states-and-districts-highest-number-and-share-english-language-learners

http://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/top-languages-spoken-english-language-learners-nationally-and-state

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