This post, apart from my annual list of predictions that will be appearing in The Washington Post tomorrow, will be my final end-of-the-year “Best” list for 2021.

You can see all of them – and there are a lot – at ALL END-OF-YEAR “BEST” LISTS FOR 2021 IN ONE PLACE!

In fact, there are so many of them, I’m a bit burned-out on creating them this year, so this list will not be anywhere as complete as I ordinarily would make it, but it’s a start…

You can find previous editions of this list, along with all “Best” lists related to ELL instruction, here.

Here’s an abbreviated and not-at-all-complete list for the year:

WE JUST REVIEWED THE “GALLEY PROOFS” FOR THE 2ND EDITION OF THE ESL/ELL TEACHER’S SURVIVAL GUIDE – IT WILL BE PUBLISHED IN EARLY APRIL!

I PLAYED A NEW LEARNING GAME WITH MY ELL STUDENTS & IT WAS A GREAT FUN TEACHING & FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT ACTIVITY

Thanks to reader Kate Barton, I recently learned about Simbi. It provides thousands of narrated books children’s books to read in several languages.  If you pay $99 annually, you can get access to premium features, but anyone can read the books for free. That’s nice, but that’s not really what makes this site truly unique. The key feature is that the books are narrated by young people all around the world, and any student can provide an audio narration of any book on the platform that can be accessed by other readers. There’s nothing more motivating than having an authentic audience, and Simbi provides one with tens-of-thousands of them! I’m adding this info to: The Best Websites To Help Beginning Readers; The Best Places Where Students Can Create Online Learning/Teaching Objects For An “Authentic Audience” and The Best Sites To Practice Speaking English.

Appropriate Beginning Reading Instruction for English Learners? is by Timothy Shanahan. It’s an older post that has been updated. I’m adding it to The Best Articles & Sites For Teachers & Students To Learn About Phonics.

HERE’S A NEW “INDIVIDUALIZED” HOMEWORK STRATEGY I’M TRYING WITH MY ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER STUDENTS

A NEW WAY I’M DEALING WITH GOOGLE TRANSLATE IN MY ELL CLASSROOM

THESE ARE THE PRIMARY TEXTS, ONLINE SITES & OTHER RESOURCES I’M USING IN MY CLASSES THIS YEAR

A COLLECTION OF THE BEST ADVICE TO TEACHERS ABOUT SUPPORTING AFGHAN REFUGEE STUDENTS

Here Are Step-By-Step Instructions For A Flashcard Activity I Do With My ELL Newcomer Students

This next info is from The National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition:

Confronting Discrimination Fact Sheet Available in New Translations

Last month, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division jointly issued a new fact sheet:

Confronting Discrimination Based on National Origin and Immigration Status.

This resource provides information about public elementary and secondary schools’ obligation to enroll all children, regardless of national origin or immigration status, and to provide language assistance services to ELs. 
Eight new translations of this fact sheet are now available in the following languages:  

Please share these new translations widely with educators, families, students, and community members. 

10 Strategies That Support English Language Learners Across All Subjects is from Edutopia.

 

INTERNATIONALS NETWORK RESOURCE BANK FOR SUPPORTING MULTILINGUAL LEARNERS looks like a great resource. I’m adding it to THE BEST COLLECTIONS OF INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES FOR ELLS – HELP ME FIND MORE!

Why phonics instruction is not enough for English learners is from Ed Source. I’m adding it to The Best Articles & Sites For Teachers & Students To Learn About Phonics.

Nualang is intriguing – for a relatively low price, teachers can create chat bots to help English Language Learners. I’m adding it to The Best Online “Chatbots” For Practicing English.

California still lags in helping long-term English learners is from Ed Source. I’m adding it to The Best Resources On Supporting Long-Term English Language Learners.

A list of lists is from Evidence Based EFL. I’m adding it to The Best Ways To Keep-Up With Current ELL/ESL/EFL News & Research and to The “Best” Lists Of Recommendations About What “Effective” Teachers Do.

Author Interview: ‘Reading & Writing With English Learners’

ANOTHER REASON WHY “GOOD TEACHING FOR ELLS IS GOOD TEACHING FOR EVERYBODY”- ONE MORE STUDY FINDS VALUE IN GESTURES DURING LESSONS

IMPORTANT INSIGHT ON PHONICS INSTRUCTION

AN EXAMPLE OF CONCEPT ATTAINMENT & RETRIEVAL PRACTICE IN THE CLASSROOM

ARE SCHOOLS OVERLOOKING AN OBVIOUS STRATEGY THEY CAN IMPLEMENT IMMEDIATELY TO ACCELERATE LEARNING? PEER TUTORS!

ALL THE DATA YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT ELLS, BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK….

“MULTIʻŌLELO” LOOKS LIKE A GOLD MINE OF USEFUL RESEARCH FOR LANGUAGE TEACHERS

HERE ARE THE GUIDELINES I’M GIVING PEER TUTORS IN MY ELL CLASSES THIS YEAR

THE BEST RESOURCES TO HELP PREPARE TUTORS & VOLUNTEERS IN ELL CLASSES – AND, BOY, DO I NEED SUGGESTIONS!

INFOGRAPHIC OF THE WEEK: “ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING IN THE U.S. INFOGRAPHIC”

Dictation is always a great activity for English Language Learners – having students pair up with mini-whiteboards to take turns dictating sentences to each other after they have just read a passage is a staple of my classroom. Students practicing on their own using online dictation sites is another option, and I have several listed at The Best Sites For ELLs To Practice Online Dictation. A brand new one has just come online, and it may be the best one around (if not the best, it’s certainly way up there). It’s called Ringo Lingo, and it’s free.

ELT Planning shares an example of different activities that can be done while watching one short video clip. I like it! I’m adding it to The Best Popular Movies/TV Shows For ESL/EFL And How To Use Them.

TeachVid uses the ideal of “parallel text” with video – playing a video in one language while showing the transcript in another. There are many follow-up activities that can be printed (or copied and pasted into Google Classroom). You can read more about it here. I’m adding it to THE BEST TOOLS THAT SHOW “PARALLEL TEXT” – SAME SENTENCES TRANSLATED INTO DIFFERENT LANGUAGES SIDE-BY-SIDE and to The Best Online Homework Sites For English Language Learners – Please Offer Your Own Suggestions.

English Learners in Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate Courses is an interesting new report. I’m adding it to The Best Ways To Keep-Up With Current ELL/ESL/EFL News & Research.

 

Each year, I share the winners of The NY Times Learning Network’s contest where students create super-short and creative videos teaching word definitions. You can see them all at The Best Resources For Learning To Use The Video Apps “Vine” & Instagram. In fact, I’m proud to say that they originally used a video one of my student’s created as a model when they kicked-off the first year’s contest. It’s a fun activity to use in the classroom, and my ELL students do it every year. The Learning Network has now consolidated many – if not all – of the winners into three separate longer videos, which will make it a lot easier to show several models at one time instead of having to click the individual ones. Here they are:

 

Tan Huynh wrote some great articles for Middleweb this year and at his own blog (where you can listen to his podcast, too), Valentina Gonzalez authored important posts at her blog, and you don’t want to miss any of Carol Salva’s podcasts.

Learn Hip lets you create an incredible number of games and online activities, primarily geared to help students learn English. I’m adding it to The Best Websites For Creating Online Learning Games.  Thanks to Blog de Cristina for the tip. Its Minimal Pairs Pronunciation Practice is particularly useful – it lets you speak the word you see and then tells you if you said it correctly or not (click on “speaking”).  Because of that feature, I’m also adding it to THE BEST SITES FOR ONLINE PRONUNCIATION FEEDBACK – DO YOU KNOW OTHERS?

How Have I Not Heard Of “Ingles.com” Or “SpanishDict” Before Now?

THE BEST RESOURCES FOR TEACHING ADULT ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS

A BEGINNING LIST OF RESOURCES FOR SUPPORTING EDUCATORS TEACHING ENGLISH INTERNATIONALLY (OR WANTING TO)

California’s math framework matters to English learners. Here’s how we can get it right is from Ed Source. It includes a link to recommendations for how to design math materials in accessible ways, which could be applied to other subjects, too. I’m adding this info to The Best Resources For Teaching Common Core Math To English Language Learners.

5 Ways Phonics Is Different for English Learners is from TESOL. I’m adding it to The Best Articles & Sites For Teachers & Students To Learn About Phonics.

THE BEST RESOURCES FOR LEARNING HOW TO USE THE LANGUAGE EXPERIENCE APPROACH

RESOURCES FOR HELPING K-12 SCHOOLS EVALUATE INTERNATIONAL TRANSCRIPTS

THE BEST RESOURCES (& TEMPLATES) FOR “ONE-PAGERS” THAT STUDENTS CAN USE TO SHOW THEIR LEARNING

 

Supporting ELLs in the Mainstream Classroom: 12 Strategies for Language Instruction is from Colorin Colorado. I’m adding it to The Best Advice To Content Teachers About Supporting English Language Learners.

The Visual Non-Glossary, created by Stephen Fleenor for Seidlitz Education, seems to me to be a “must-have” for Science educators working with ELLs. It costs $100, but definitely seems worth the cost. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Teaching The Next Generation Science Standards To English Language Learners.

 

THE BEST TOOLS FOR TAKING STUDENTS “AROUND THE WORLD”

The kind of teaching kids need right now is the headline of my latest column in The Washington Post. It’s a commentary on the two latest buzzwords in education, “accelerated learning” and “learning loss,” and how, in fact, teaching practices commonly used by ELL educators are what ALL students really need.

HERE’S A DRAFT PLAN FOR OUR SCHOOL’S SUMMER SCHOOL NEWCOMER/INTERMEDIATE ELL CLASS

NEW ACTIVITY I’M USING WITH ELLS: “CRITICAL THINKING DIALOGUES”

THE BEST PLACES TO GET ACCESSIBLE HISTORY TEXTS FOR ELLS

HERE’S A MAP SHOWING THE MOST UP-TO-DATE ELL STATISTICS IN THE U.S.

NEW STUDY FINDS THAT THE PRESENCE OF IMMIGRANT STUDENTS IN SCHOOLS HELPS EVERYBODY, BUT TOTALLY MISSES OBVIOUS REASON

TOP-NOTCH LANGUAGE CONVERSATION/PRONUNCIATION SITE “PEAKSAY” NOW LETS TEACHERS CREATE CLASSES!

A BEGINNING LIST OF THE BEST RESOURCES FOR USING GOOGLE JAMBOARDS WITH ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS – PLEASE ADD YOUR OWN!

VERY GOOD VIDEO ON “TEXT ENGINEERING” TO MAKE IT MORE ACCESSIBLE TO ELLS & EVERYBODY ELSE

THIS IS EXCITING – NEW CENTER & WEBSITE LAUNCHED TO SUPPORT INSTRUCTION FOR SECONDARY ELLS

INTRIGUING STUDY SUGGESTS UNIQUE (AT LEAST, TO ME) BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE STRATEGY

A colleague at our school who teaches math to Newcomers is very excited about Desmos.  Here’s what Dan Meyer, Dean of Research at Desmos, told me after I asked him for how other teachers have been using it with ELLs:

During this last awful year, we’ve been really happy to support educators outside of our original community of math teachers. With teachers of multilingual students, we see them taking advantage of student components like photo upload, sketch, and card sort, which allow students to express their thinking even while they’re developing their ability to describe it in writing. We also see teachers using some of our advanced features in some really novel ways. Like Jenna Davis here (who might be a useful source for you) who uses our “initialText” setting to add sentence frames to text input components, giving students a useful scaffold for their thinking.

I’m adding this info to The Best Resources For Teaching Common Core Math To English Language Learners.

 

10 Things Educators Need to Know about Unaccompanied Minors is the best thing I’ve seen written on the topic. It’s from Immigrant Connections.

Sound Grammar provides lots of free videos, along with student handouts, on grammar. It seems to be a newer site (at least to me!) created by the same people behind ELLO, which has been an excellent site ELL site for many years. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Grammar Practice. By the way, I’ve just completely revised and updated that “Best” list.

An Asset-Based Approach to Supporting English Learners’ Reading Skills is by Valentina Gonzalez.

A reporter from the Sacramento NPR affiliate sat-in and recorded some of my ELL Zoom classes (with student and parent permission, of course!). You can listen to it and read more at Now Is Time To Help Students Learning English As A Second Language, Experts Say. The audio is different from the article.

Research on motivation and motivational strategies in EFL teaching: A systematic literature review is a new research paper. I’m adding it to Best Posts On “Motivating” Students.

Distance learning and English Language Learners is a piece I wrote for The British Council.