In today’s general education classrooms, struggling ELLs are those who have difficulty meeting standards and expectations for academic achievement.More than ever before, there is a considerable urgency for teachers to use differentiated instruction to support second-language learning. Differentiated instruction for those struggling ELLs especially in the early primary grades should relate to those critical areas of language learning that teachers have already assessed.

The problem is that not many teachers are aware of the critical importance of assessment when it comes to customizing lesson plans to meet the needs of their struggling ELLs. Also, teachers don’t know how to differentiate instruction using the results of those assessments.

When teachers know the critical areas of their struggling ELLs in a general education setting, they are better able to provide a customized lesson plan that supports their language learning needs.

Wouldn’t you feel more at ease knowing that your struggling ELLs are on their way to reading and writing success?

In my special report, you’ll learn how early assessment can help with differentiating instruction to suit your struggling ELLs. You’ll also find out the steps involved in differentiating instruction using those assessment results. Check HERE to purchase my special report on “How to Use Assessment to Differentiate Instruction for Struggling ELLs.”

So what are you waiting for? Take control with your struggling ELLs today!

All students are different in terms of their achievement, ability, learning and cognitive styles as well as attitudes, pace of learning, personality and motivation.  Teachers need to cater to diverse learning needs.

The problems the teacher faces when teaching differentiated classes include how to plan lessons that can meet the needs of all the students from getting bored and the lower performing students from feeling that they are lost. How can the teacher do this without preparing materials for each level? What options are available to teachers?

Look at it like this: In order for students to feel engaged with the material you are teaching, they need to be challenged. And when students are engaged, they are motivated to learn.

In my special report  ”Teaching Tips on Differentiated Instruction,” you’ll receive important information about how differentiated instruction works and how you can use it in your classrooms. I’ll provide you with five steps to help you get started as well as additional lesson planning tips.

Please leave your name and email in the comment box if you would like to receive a FREE pdf file of this special teaching report. It’s my free gift to you to welcome in the New Year. Here’s to your teaching success!

It is difficult enough just managing a class let alone supporting your ELLs? (English language learners) For any of you teachers teaching ELLs in a pull-out nature, a separate ESL support group or in a general education class, you are probably hungry for solutions unique to your own classroom situation.

Implementing a transitional period for ELLs to acquire confidence and proficiency in their language learning would solve many problems, without teachers feeling the pressure of keeping up with the benchmarks and standards of a curriculum.

However, since this is not an option for teachers, here are a few options for what you can do to support your ELLs:

1. Diversify written and oral instruction.
2. Connect oral work with reading activities as much as possible.
3. Preteach vocabulary (no more than 5-6 words per lesson) and review vocabulary as often as possible using both an oral and written framework.

ESLeverything.net provides a wealth of information on how to work with your ELLs.

I just read a very interesting discussion distinguishing between push-in and pull-out classroom situations.

I am also offering a discount on my newest ebook release “Differentiated Instruction for ELLs.” This book provides a handout of classroom tested ideas and resources and activities on differentiated instruction. Simply click on the upper left hand link to learn more information.

This coming fall, I am giving workshops on differentiated instruction for mixed ability classes and ELLs. Please click on the link here:

Workshops will be given in Ohio, Pennslyvania, New Jersey and West Virginia.

Teachers are always asking me about differentiated teaching strategies for ELLs, and how to engage all the students in the best way they possibly can. Differentiated teaching has become a “hot” topic right now in the field of literacy and so, I’m doing all I can to keep up with the research trends and my own book writing on the subject.

Differentiated Instruction - not so entirely new

The concept of differentiated teaching is an emerging teaching concept in the United States, but in Israel differentiated teaching has been around for a while. From preschool age all over, students are already grouped in heterogeneous groups. First grade teachers should think strategically - long term differentiated teaching across the curriculum is a model for raising the standards within the educational system.

How Differentiated Instruction works

Differentiated instruction has become a target model for helping Ells progress, which is an approach that should be applied to all general education classes. The principle of heterogeneous teaching is one and the same in all content areas.

Try and think how to diversify that lesson and open it to engage wider groups of students. Conceptually, the idea of heterogeneous or differentiated teaching involves a main teaching technique:

Same input - different task. Teachers take the learning objective and adapt it to meet the three groups of learning groups - higher - middle and lower ability students. The idea is to engage all the students without recreating three different sets of lessons. This will quickly wear you out as a new teacher.

Materials in Action

For example, if you’re considering bringing in a reading passage on endangered animals, you’ll need three sets of tasks. Students who can read and understand much more proficiently can answer much in-depth and detailed questions (ie. searching for the main idea type questions) while the lower-performing students can be expected to skim and scan for basic information: name of animal, what does the animal eat, other names, location, etc. The middle performing students can answer ‘wh’ questions: who? what? when? where? why? how many? etc.

Here is a great all-in-one web site for differentiating instruction for English language learners arranged according to grades.

Good Luck! Hope you’re enjoying your summer.