"Transcendentalism" refers to philosophical, religious, and literary beliefs held by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Amos Bronson Alcott, and other writers in New England during the 1830s and 1840s. Emerson believed in the significance of one's intuition and individuality. He expresses these beliefs in his…

In this article Deidre Faughey shares an experimental classroom project that she developed with a diverse group of students in three ninth-grade English Language Arts (ELA) classes. Podcasts provide a unique opportunity for students to embrace experimentation and to take risks with their own voices, explore the school building and community, and…

Many students experience that the prepackaged secondary English as a Second Language (ESL) curriculum used in many classrooms does not effectively engage them or further their English acquisition. This article shares the story of creating a curriculum the authors believe other teachers can emulate to successfully teach adolescents who are new to…

This study examines the nature of peer interaction, in particular pair interaction, of adult learners engaged in a range of activities in naturalistic EFL lessons. Six pairs engaged in seven different activities followed by a stimulated recall interview. Data from the transcripts of the audio-recorded pair talk and interviews were analyzed to…

In the years since 2008, when the "Success with ELLs" column started, these authors have seen many changes to the educational landscape, not dealing specifically with ELLs, but having implications for their education. Probably, the most significant change has been the adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), which have no…

This article suggests effective approaches to teaching English language learners in ways that can be of benefit to all students in mainstream middle and high school English classes. The five approaches described herein that mainstream ESL teachers can do to make assessments more accurate and reliable, as well as to address heterogeneity, are: (1)…

One of the most challenging aspects of the teaching profession, at all levels, is to identify and illuminate assumptions--one's students' and one's own. This article describes how three members of the Hudson Valley Writing Project (HVWP) at the State University of New York (SUNY) at New Paltz worked closely with the National Writing Project's…

Learning a language can be a long and arduous journey, and there is a lot of pressure on teachers to get students ready for standardized tests quickly. Because of the high-stakes consequences attached to standardized tests in combination with consistently lower test scores among English language learners (ELLs), the tests greatly impact the…

Working with English language learners in mainstream ELA classrooms can provide rich rewards in terms of developing multiple perspectives, sharing diverse experiences, and developing understanding of different cultural practices. However, these students can also challenge mainstream teachers. Supporting ELLs throughout the reading process can…

One of the most persistent challenges facing teachers is the need to provide effective literacy instruction for adolescent English language learners (ELLs). The literacy crisis for these students is a compelling one; only 4% of eighth-grade ELLs scored at the proficient or advanced level on the reading portion of the 2005 National Assessment for…

English teachers face myriad demands every day that include not only helping students read literature in interesting and engaging ways but also attending to the needs of students challenged by the demands of more complex and sophisticated texts. Vocabulary learning is at the heart of this struggle for many students, especially for English language…

Several issues make standardized assessment of ELLs a challenge and the information provided by these assessments unreliable. However, as educators, they do need to know how students are doing, what gains they are making, where gaps in their understanding exist, and what types of instructional strategies and topics need to be introduced to…

In this article, the author shares her experience and the lessons learned in teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) for a decade. After thousands of lessons, uncountable revisions to those lessons, numerous hours of professional development, access to dozens of talented colleagues, and an abundance of thoughts and insights from…

When the author first started teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) students, she was incredibly naive about the second language acquisition process. One of the first moves she made was to look at the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) goals, and she began to think about the purposes and situations in which her…

High school teacher J. Arias recommends valuable activities that teachers can use to "build communities of respect, tolerance, and acceptance" for language diversity in schools. Many of the activities are directed toward helping native English speakers empathize with and better understand English language learners' experiences with language…