How to Teach English Language Learners

This hands-on book offers teachers a much-needed resource that will help maximize learning for English Language Learners (ELLs). How to Teach English Language Learners draws on two wide-ranging teacher quality studies and profiles eight educators who have achieved exceptional results with their ELL students. Through highly readable portraits, the authors take readers into these teachers' classrooms, illustrating richly what it is they do differently that yields such great results from English learners. Because most teachers profiled work within a three-tiered Response-to-Intervention framework, the book shows how to implement RTI effectively with ELLs—from providing general reading instruction for the entire classroom to targeted interventions with struggling students. Written by noted ELL educators Diane Haager, Janette K. Klingner, and Terese Aceves, How to Teach English Language Learners is filled with inspiring success stories, teaching tips, activities, discussion questions, and reflections from these outstanding teachers.

About This Book v

The Authors vii

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: Getting Started with This Book 1

Part One: Core Instruction in the General Education Classroom (Tier 1)

1 Effective Classroom Practice in a General Education Setting 13

2 Bilingual Kindergarten Instruction in a Dual Immersion Program 35

3 Bilingual First-Grade Instruction 53
Michael Orosco and Janette K. Klinger

Part Two: Supplemental Intervention for Struggling Readers (Tier 2)

4 Supporting Struggling ELL Readers 81

Part Three: Intensive Instruction for Students with Significant Learning Needs (Tier 3)

5 Special Education in a Pull-Out Setting 115

6 Special Education in an Inclusive Setting 135

Conclusion: Putting It All Together 153

Appendix A: Suggested Web Resources 167

Appendix B: Suggested Print Resources 177

References 179

Index 181

Diane Haager, professor of special education and counseling at California State University Los Angeles, is a researcher and teacher educator in reading and learning disabilities.

Janette K. Klingner is a professor in bilingual special education at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Haager and Klingner are co-authors of numerous books including Differentiating Instruction in Inclusive Classrooms: The Special Educator's Guide.

Terese C. Aceves is associate professor of special education at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. She is co-editor of Education for All from Jossey-Bass, 2008.

How to Teach English Language Learners

This hands-on book offers teachers a much-needed resource that will help maximize learning for English Language Learners (ELLs). How to Teach English Language Learners draws on two wide-ranging teacher quality studies and profiles eight educators who have achieved exceptional results with their ELL students. Through highly readable portraits, the authors take readers into these teachers' classrooms, illustrating richly what it is they do differently that yields such great results from English learners. Because most teachers profiled work within a three-tiered Response-to-Intervention framework, the book shows how to implement RTI effectively with ELLs—from providing general reading instruction for the entire classroom to targeted interventions with struggling students. Written by noted ELL educators Diane Haager, Janette K. Klingner, and Terese Aceves, How to Teach English Language Learners is filled with inspiring success stories, teaching tips, activities, discussion questions, and reflections from these outstanding teachers.

Praise for How to Teach English Language Learners

"Drawing from the complex and challenging milieu of educating diverse student populations, the authors provide a dynamic teaching and learning resource for ensuring literacy success. The narrative mirrors authentically who we are and who we need to be, as teachers of English learners, to do our best practice effectively and purposefully. The authors capture the essence of teaching and learning with humanity, truth, and complexity.... An exciting resource."
—Dr. Dolores Beltran, associate professor, California State University—Los Angeles