Free EL and ESL Instructional Resources
English language learners certainly have unique needs and talents. Creative and sensitive teachers learn how to address the former and celebrate the latter. However, most EL and ESL students share the same mix of mastered and unmastered English-language arts and reading skills with their primary English speaking peers.
Following are articles, free resources (including reading assessments), and teaching tips regarding English language learners from the Pennington Publishing Blog. Bookmark and visit us often. Oh, and don’t forget to copy down the 10% discount code found only on this blog to purchase the quality curricula and resources offered by Pennington Publishing.
EL/ESL
Free Whole Class Diagnostic ELA/Reading Assessments
http://penningtonpublishing.com/assessments.php
Download free phonemic awareness, vowel sound phonics, consonant sound phonics, sight word, rimes, sight syllables, fluency, grammar, mechanics, and spelling assessments. All with answers and recording matrices. A true gold mine for the teacher committed to differentiated instruction!
How Oral Language Proficiency Impacts Writing
Oral language proficiency most significantly impacts expository writing ability. The language of the playground is conducive to the narrative form, not the informative and argumentative essays that constitute the bulk of academic writing.
How to Teach ESL Writing
http://penningtonpublishing.com/blog/grammar_mechanics/how-to-teach-el-writing/
Glossing over the specific needs of developing EL writers and hoping that they will “catch up” in their writing when their oral language and reading abilities in English “catch up” is simply akin to medical malpractice. Having diagnosed and treated a wide spectrum of EL writing over the years, my most useful two triage tips are 1) effective diagnosis and 2) prioritization of patient needs into two types of treatments: emergency and long-term care. I list specific symptoms, i.e. examples of student writing problems, to keep things simple.
English Can Be So Confusing
http://penningtonpublishing.com/blog/reading/english-can-be-so-confusing/
Some of the most commonly confused words, especially for English language learners are homographs. The word part homo means same and graphs means writing, so a homograph is a word that is spelled just like another word, but it means something quite different. Some of the homographs can make very strange bedfellows.
More Articles, Free Resources, and Teaching Tips from the Pennington Publishing Blog
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The writer of this article, Mark Pennington, MA Reading Specialist, is the author of Teaching Grammar and Mechanics, Teaching Essay Strategies, Teaching Reading Strategies, and Teaching Spelling and Vocabulary and more ELA/Reading resources for the overworked teacher committed to differentiating instruction according to diagnostic and formative data. Perfect for EL/ESL and RtI instruction. For free diagnostic assessments, flashcards, and instructional materials, as well as his highly-recommended curricula, check out www.penningtonpublishing.com. Bookmark and refer back often to the Pennington Publishing Blog for insightful articles, free resources, and educational tips. Oh, and don’t forget the copy down the 10% discount code found only on this blog.
Grammar/Mechanics, Reading, Spelling/Vocabulary, Study Skills, Writing
