Another day, another mid-year “The Best…” list…..

I’m adding this post to All Mid-Year 2017 “Best” Lists In One Place.

Ordinarily, I also publish a separate list for ELL students, but just didn’t have it in me to do that this month.  You can see links to all those past posts at The Best Websites For English Language Learner Students In 2015 – Part Two.  I’ve included resources that I would ordinarily put in that list in this post, instead.

You might also be interested in:

The Best Resources, Articles & Blog Posts For Teachers Of ELLs In 2016 – Part Two

The Best Resources, Articles & Blog Posts For Teachers of ELLs in 2016 – So Far

The Best Resources, Articles & Blog Posts For Teachers Of ELLs In 2015 – Part Two

The Best Websites For English Language Learner Students In 2015 – So Far

The Best Resources, Articles & Blog Posts For Teachers Of ELLs In 2014 – Part Two

The Best Resources, Articles & Blog Posts For Teachers Of ELLs In 2014 – So Far

The “All-Time” Best Resources, Articles & Blog Posts For Teachers Of English Language Learners

The Best Resources, Articles & Blog Posts For Teachers Of ELLs In 2013 – Part Two

The Best Resources, Articles & Blog Posts For Teachers Of ELLs In 2013 – So Far

The Best Resources, Articles & Blog Posts For Teachers Of ELL’s In 2012 — Part Two

The Best Resources, Articles & Blog Posts For Teachers Of ELL’s In 2012 — Part One

The Best Resources, Articles & Blog Posts For Teachers Of ELL’s In 2011 — Part Two

The Best Resources, Articles & Blog Posts For Teachers Of ELL’s In 2011 — Part One

The Best Resources, Articles & Blog Posts For Teachers Of ELL’s — 2010

The Best Sites For Teachers Of English Language Learners — 2009

Here are my choices for The Best Resources, Articles & Blog Posts For Teachers Of ELL’s In 2017 – So Far:

Best Practices for Serving English Language Learners and Their Families is from Teaching Tolerance.

Video Playlist: Five Essential Practices for the High School ELL Classroom is new from The Teaching Channel. I’ll be using some of these clips in my university ELL Methods class.

Teaching English – British Council is one of the best resources for ELL teachers on the web. You can subscribe to their free email newsletter here.

3 Reasons To Dump Round Robin Reading and What To Do Insteadis by Valentina Gonzalez. I’m adding it to The Best Posts On Students Reading Aloud Individually In ESL Class — But I Need Your Help Finding Research On The Topic.

S is for Speaking (1) is by Scott Thornbury. It offers some good student activity ideas. I’m adding it to The Best Sites To Practice Speaking English.

Thanks to The Backseat Linguist, I learned about The Language Muse. It appears to be Educational Testing Service’s (ETS) attempt to break into the English Language Learner market. It will take any text you give it and automatically turn it into a zillion different learning activities you can either assign electronically or via paper. I have lots of concerns about tools that spit out automatic activities (see “textivate” Has Potential, But…..), but you might want to try out The Language Muse. You have to request a password, and I received one within twelve hours. It seems free to use now, but I think it’s a safe bet that ETS will be charging schools in the not-so-distant future.  I’m adding it to The Best Sites Where Students Can Work Independently & Let Teachers Check On Progress.

I’m adding this tweet to The Best Sites For Learning Strategies To Teach ELL’s In Content Classes:

StoryWorld is a new site that has about forty bilingual stories (English/Spanish or English/Chinese) with audio support for the text. Teachers can easily create virtual classrooms. You can get a thirty-day free trial (no credit card number required). Then, it costs $69 per year for a classroom. I think it might be particularly useful for my Spanish-speaking students who are not literate in their home language. I’m going to try it out this month and see. I’m also adding it to The Best Sites Where Students Can Work Independently & Let Teachers Check On Progress and The Best Online Resources For Teachers of Pre-Literate ELL’s & Those Not Literate In Their Home Language.

I’ve previously written a lot about The Teaching English British Council Facebook page. I can’t say enough about it – it’s just about the most useful site on the web for teachers of ELLs. In addition to being useful for ELL teachers, though, they’ve also begun to share helpful materials for teachers of anybody. I’d encourage you to become a regular visitor if you aren’t already.

The Backseat Linguist has a nice commentary on a recent study about phonics. It raises important questions, especially in light of some who claim the study prove phonics is the way to go. Personally, I’m a believer and practitioner in teaching phonics inductively – not in the mind-numbing way it’s often taught. You can see more at The Best Articles & Sites For Teachers & Students To Learn About Phonics.

You’ll want to read A Newcomer’s Journey by ELL teacher Astrid Emily Francis.

This is a simple, but brilliant, game.  I’m adding it to The Best Ideas For Using Games In The ESL/EFL/ELL Classroom:

Games For Language has a very nice story-telling interactive for English Language Learners (they have ones for learners of other languages, too).  My students enjoyed it this past week.

Circle Games is from the British Council. I’m adding it to The Best Ideas For Using Games In The ESL/EFL/ELL Classroom.

“Focus Bulletins” from WIDA provide in-depth reports on a variety of ELL-related issues.

English-Language Learners: How Schools Can Drive or Derail Their Success is from Ed Week.

Listen and Read Along is a great YouTube channel filled with text and songs that look like this one I used yesterday in my classroom. I’m adding it to The Best Music Websites For Learning English:

Making Learning Stick: Total Physical Response is by Valentina Gonzalez. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About Total Physical Response (TPR).

Big news this year in the ELL world is the release by the National Academy of Sciences of a monster report titled Promoting the Educational Success of Children and Youth Learning English: Promising Futures. It’s 415 pages, and I get tired just looking at the Table of Contents. You can read a short summary at Ed Week. My quick perusal of it didn’t turn up anything most ELL teachers don’t already know. However, it never hurts to be able to cite the National Academy of Sciences as support for something you want to do in the classroom.

David Deubelbeiss, the hardest-working person in the ESL/EFL/ELL world, has unveiled a revamping of his excellent GIFLingua site. Check it out! It looks great!

New Book Excerpt: Supporting ELL Students With Interrupted Formal Education

7 Strategies To Support ELLs in Writing Instruction is by Valentina Gonzalez.

Why marking your students’ books should be the least of your priorities is from The Language Gym and is one of the best pieces I’ve ever read about error correction. I’m adding it to The Best Resources On ESL/EFL/ELL Error Correction.

Immigrant and Refugee Children: A Guide for Educators and School Support Staff comes from Teaching Tolerance.

I previously posted about a great Jimmy Fallon activity he calls Mad Lib Theater.  Teacher Daniel took the idea and “ran with it” – he created some great student hand-outs and a lesson plan.

Strengthening Teaching and Learning for ELLs is from The Teaching Channel, and it’s accompanied by some new videos.

Desk Olympics is a good post and a must-watch video from Carol Salva.

Ending the No Child Left Behind Catch-22 on English learner progress is an important article in Ed Source by LINDA DARLING-HAMMOND AND KENJI HAKUTA.

How do I make my anchor charts ELL friendly?  is by Valentina Gonzalez.  I’m adding it to The Best Resources On Providing Scaffolds To Students.

Five tips for using authentic video in the classroom is from The British Council and is pretty interesting. I’m adding it to The Best Popular Movies/TV Shows For ESL/EFL.

Here’s What I’m Doing As A Final With Beginning ELLs

How My ELL Students Used Padlet To Create A “Picture Data Set”

All My Thematic “Best” Lists For Beginning ELLs – In One Place!

Four ways to encourage speaking in the ELL classroom is the headline of my latest post at the British Council.

Guest Post: What ELLs Taught Our School In A Week-Long Empathy Project

Top Five Vocabulary Strategies for English Language Learners is by Erica Hilliker at The Teaching Channel.

14 Song-Based Lesson Plans and Activities is from On The Same Page. I’m adding it to The Best Music Websites For Learning English.

Here’s A Plan For An Oral Skills Class Next Year – Please Help Make It Better!

“Teaching ELLs to Write Academic Essays”

Online English Language-Learning Resources For Students Not Literate In Their Home Language

iSLCollective Appears To Be A Jackpot For ELL Student Hand-Outs & Interactive Videos

Everything You Wanted To Know About How We’re Using Virtual Reality With ELLs, But Were Afraid To Ask

Now This Is A Student Goal-Setting Strategy That May Actually Work

“Everyone Is A Teacher” Is A New Engagement Strategy I’m Using & It Seems To Be Working

ELL Beginners Jobs & Careers Project With Hand-Out & Videos

Here’s My Entire ELL Beginners Seven-Week Unit On Writing A Story (Including Hand-outs & Links)

Here Are Good Discussion Questions For Our Book On ELLS & The Common Core

“Your One Word” Seems Like A Pretty Useful Idea For A Lesson

The Promise & Peril Of Using Google Translate In The ELL Classroom – Share Your Ideas

Student Engagement: Key to Personalized Learning is the headline of my fairly lengthy article in ASCD Educational Leadership. In it, I discuss various personalized learning strategies for both English Language Learners and English-proficient students. I also include a list of recommended free resources.

A Look Back: Every Teacher Who Has An ELL In Their Class Should Watch This “Immersion” Film

Video: “Immigrants In Our Community Are A Gift”

“Putting Teacher Action Research Into Action” Is My New British Council Post

Video: Entire “Uncut” 84 Lumber “Journey” Super Bowl Commercial (That Will Be Shown In Many ELL Classes Tomorrow)

Here’s A Lesson – & A Template – That Intermediate ELL Students Taught Beginners

A Look Back: “Ways A Mainstream Teacher Can Support An ELL Newcomer In Class”

My Latest NY Times Post For ELLs Is On Teaching About “Fake News”

“SuperTeacherTools” Is An Excellent Site For ELL Beginners To Create & Play Games

Video: “Adobe Spark” Is Excellent Tool For ELLs

“ESL Video” Improvements Turn Good Site Into Great One

Here Are Two Activities I’ll Be Doing With My ELL Students The Day We Come Back From Break

A Look Back: “How to Cultivate Student Agency in English Language Learners”

The Best Resources Explaining Why We Need To Support The Home Language Of ELLs

All My BAM! Radio Shows About English Language Learners

The Best Practical Resources For Helping Teachers, Students & Families Respond To Immigration Challenges

A Beginning List Of The Best Resources For Fighting Islamophobia In Schools