This blog post offers some resources to help students do well on tests.  First, I'll explain what got me interested in this topic and then I'll list some free and paid materials. Get a set of test prep posters & flash cards HERE; graphic by The ESL Nexus My Test Preparation Revelation A few decades ago, I spent a summer studying French at a university in Quebec, Canada.  Before the program started, we had to take a language test to determine which level we'd be placed in for our classes.    Although I had taken French for 6 years in junior and senior high schoo ..read more

Teaching Science to English Language Learners is easier, in my opinion, than teaching Social Studies because it is less language-dependent and more hands-on.  Nevertheless, there is a lot of science terminology that Multilingual Learners of English must learn as well as certain text structures that are commonly used in science textbooks.  To ensure that they're assessed on their knowledge of science and not on their knowledge of English, I'm going to share 4 tips for creating appropriate science assessments for ELLs and then give examples for students at different levels of language ..read more

It’s March and that means it’s time for Women’s History Month!  But do your students know why it’s important to learn about Women’s History?  Here are 3 reasons you can share with your students that explain the importance of learning about women in history, followed by 3 resources you can use with your students during the Women’s History Month. Find Women's History Month teaching resources at The ESL Nexus; background image from Depositphotos Reasons for Teaching Women’s History 1) Offers Inspiration and Empowerment When you incorporate Women’s History into your lessons, yo ..read more

Teaching Social Studies to English Language Learners (aka Multilingual Learners of English) who are in mainstream regular education classes can be challenging and designing ELL Social Studies assessments that appropriately evaluate what those students have learned may be even more difficult.  In this blog post, I’d like to share some ideas about best practices for ELL assessment in Social Studies classes.  Ideas are divided into grade spans, with examples for different language proficiency levels. Find useful Social Studies materials at The ESL Nexus; graphic created by The ESL ..read more

I’ve recently seen a number of posts in teacher Facebook groups asking for ideas about decorating their classrooms or doors for Christmas. In response, I’d like to offer some info and links to resources about what is and is not allowed in public schools regarding December holidays because it’s an important issue, maybe even more so for teachers with English Learners in their classes who may not be Christian. (And, yes, I did respond to those Facebook posts.)  Find great resources about lots of holidays HERE Celebrating Holidays Year Round When I was a student, many of my classroo ..read more

It's Cyber Monday so TPT is having a sale starting Monday, November 27th at 12:01am Eastern time and ending Tuesday at 11:59pm Eastern time.
 Everything in my store will, as usual, be 20% off.  The promo code for getting an additional 5% off at checkout is CYBER23. So you’ll save 25% on everything in my store during the sale.  Yay! Find great resources for ELLs & other students at The ESL Nexus! Top 5 Resources for the End of November through December * Organizing Writing, Editing Paragraphs, Writing Citations, Types of Writing Includes 6 resources that teach students ho ..read more

Boom Learning is having a Cyber Sale and I’m thrilled to let you know that 4 of my Boom resources are part of it!  The sale runs through Monday, November 27th.  My store is called The ESL Nexus and the 4 resources on sale are all half price. Click HERE for more info about these 4 resources What are Boom Resources? If you aren’t familiar with Boom Learning, it’s an online marketplace selling digital resources for educators.  What makes it different from other teacher marketplaces is that the resources are automatically self-correcting.  That saves you loads of time ..read more

English Language Learners, especially if they are immigrants, may not be familiar with the history and customs of celebrating this iconic American holiday.  What can a busy teacher do?  I have rounded up 8 books to help you out.  And I’m including a bonus book just for teachers at the end. Books for ELLs at high beginning to advanced proficiency levels; source: The ESL Nexus This list of 8 informational texts includes books about the Pilgrims, the Mayflower, the Wampanoags, and life at Plimoth Plantation.  Some of them are probably familiar but others may be new.&n ..read more

Creating classroom assessments that fairly and appropriately evaluate what English Language Learners have learned about a subject is crucial.  But when you’re teaching an academic subject, designing differentiated assessments for ELLs at various levels of language proficiency may seem very time-consuming.  Although there is certainly some work involved when designing such tests, after the first time you’ll have a test bank you can adapt for future assessments.   This blog post is the first in a series in which I’m going to describe some ELL assessment strategies you can use when ..read more

Parent communication is crucial for teachers working with English Language Learners.  But for the first couple of years that I taught at my K-8 school, almost none of the parents of my English Learners came to my classroom during our Open Houses at the beginning of the year or for quarterly parent conferences when report cards came out. It was very discouraging to sit in my room for 2 hours and have no one visit. In this blog post, I'm going to share the easy-to-implement things I did to change that. Sending letters home to ELL families increases their participation in school functi ..read more