Building Positive ELL Parent – Teacher Relationships

Building Positive ELL Parent – Teacher Relationships The avenues of communication between teachers and parents are paramount in the successful academic outcomes of a child. Without a healthy back and forth of ideas between both stakeholders, the child could potentially fall through the proverbial cracks where their learning is concerned. Teachers are tasked with educating students during the school day … Read More

The Value of Training Teachers in Cultural Awareness

Student populations are becoming more diverse and schools need to begin to foster an educational environment that is culturally aware enough to include all ethnic backgrounds in the classroom. Becoming more cognizant of the many cultures and ethnic groups that make up the student body will not only encourage children to seek out and learn about people and places that … Read More

The Oral Traditions of Hispanics

Hispanic culture is known to have strong oral traditions, expressed through storytelling, lyric poetry, riddles, jokes, folk prayers and incantations, songs, and many other formats. Samuel G. Armistead, author of Pan-Hispanic Oral Tradition, defines oral tradition as “any manifestation of folk culture that includes the use of language. Creativity, ongoing evolution, and chronological depth are also essential factors.” The University … Read More

Home-School Connections with Parents of ELL Students

Home-School Connections with Parents of ELL Students Successful parental engagement for ELL students starts with getting the parents actively involved. Unfortunately, this can be a much tougher obstacle to navigate than one might expect. There are a variety of hindrances in the path to engagement with parents of ELL’s, most of them rooted in a reluctance on the part of … Read More

What Does It Mean to be Culturally Responsive?

In today’s diverse world, being culturally responsive is a critical and necessary feature of a quality education. But what does it mean to be culturally responsive? According to the National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems (NCCREST), “cultural responsiveness is the ability to learn from and relate respectfully with people of your own culture as well as those from other … Read More