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…

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…

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…

This article takes a closer look at teaching in classrooms by reviewing a recent article by Carol Booth Olson and Robert Land, literacy researchers and National Writing Project site directors. In "A Cognitive Strategies Approach to Reading and Writing Instruction for English Language Learners in Secondary School" (EJ776476), Olson and…

Chris Altman stresses the importance of helping English language learners ascertain the medium they best work with in interpreting information presented in class. Altman reminds us that meaning does not come directly from teachers giving students information, but from students productively making meaning and clarifying understanding through a…