Inside Bell's Brain

I'm so excited that I FINALLY got latest product, English Learner Notebooks , posted in my store yesterday!  I've been working on it for several weeks now, but the back-to-school days had me like WOAH!  I really hope that it will be a useful tool for other ELL/ESL/ELD teachers across the U.S. whose schools/states are members of the WIDA consortium.  I decided to include a few highlights here on my blog so you can see what it's all about!  Click through the image below to check it out in my TpT store. Please note that I am not affiliated with WIDA in any way.  I do not and have not worked for them at any time.  This product is not approved nor endorsed by WIDA.  It is simply a product created to use in conjunction with your students' teacher reports to better help students understand their English development. It occurred to me a few years back that, while ESL teachers in my state are expected to meet predetermined percentages of growt...

Well, we made it through August, and today is the first Friday of a new month.  A perfect time for reflection as we take on another chapter in the school year.  What are your plans for your instruction this year? When planning projects and alternative assessments, remember to give students voice and choice. We want to create a generation of thinkers…not robots.  It's certainly easier on ourselves to assign the same projects/assignments for everyone...but what are our students really getting out of it?  How often does that reflect the demands of a 21st century work environment?  Our students must be able to think critically, and giving them the freedoms to do so now will give back to the world a hundred fold! 

Whew!  This week has flown by, and I missed the opportunity to post and link up this morning!  But I'm here now to share my thoughts with you on considerations for assessment, specifically when working with English learners.  (Please forgive me for my lack of graphics this week!  I'm trying to post and link up as quickly as possible!)  1. Change your lenses!  Before ever giving a formal assessment, you should view that assessment through the eyes of your EL students.  Ask yourself the following questions to gain some insight into your assessments. Are there complex syntactical structures that will confuse language learners?   Think of how much we overthink those true/false questions that have a negative word in them.  "If I say true, am I agreeing that it's true or not true?  But it has the word not, or never, or none!"  Those same questions can be very misleading for ELs because they're hyperfocused on the language and struct...

Every child is different; therefore, every child learns in a different way also.  But as teachers, we are responsible for the success of all our students.  That includes making the necessary accommodations that all our students need, both during instruction and during assessment.  I've been reflecting on the idea of accommodations and what they mean in working with English learners and similar diverse populations of students.  I wanted to share some of my ideas about accommodations in hopes that it can help you in planning appropriate accommodations for your ELs and all your students. Accommodations should be made throughout the learning process.   Accommodations are not retroactive efforts made to help a student achieve a barely-passing grade on an assessment.  Accommodations should be something you contemplate as you're planning your instruction.  The best instruction includes accommodations throughout the entire teaching and learning process so ...