Most general education teachers of ELLs (English language learners) will tell you they are usually doing one of two things to support their readers. They are either figuring out the best way to teach them within a full class inclusion or what kind of activities can suit their abilities within a full class framework. That’s the only way to ensure the steps of engage them in a full class where it is often very easy to loose them.

One way to make it easier to support struggling ELLs is to develop a weekly plan. A good time to develop this plan for the week is after you pre-assessed your students’ reading abilities. You can do this using either an oral or written assessment based on the areas you want to teach. Your support plan will provide a blueprint or “road map” of the weaker areas that are difficult for your ELLs to acquire. Your weekly support plan should consist of a list of the following:

1. Areas or skills you want to concentrate on - This may include areas that correspond to the educational standards that the textbook focuses on or any supplementary material to the textbook.

2. Core or supplementary reading activities - These are activities that you may choose to adapt from the textbook in order to cater to their level. You might however use some of the textbook activities or from a website that provides information and guidelines on differentiated instruction. Core activities simply means using identifying those activities that correspond to a particular benchmark or educational standard.

3. Opportunities for Assessment - Struggling learners needs periodic follow-ups and assessment opportunities. Try using mini-assessments, which don’t focus on too much information at one time, but rather small(er) chunks of information like a grammar point or the vocabulary that you taught in a reading lesson.

4. Small group lesson planning - This category is a bit different from the traditional lesson planning for full group instruction. Working in small group can be a good intervention tool if you know the areas of weaknesses. You might join other teachers and map out targeted areas of the curriculum if you are also teaching the similar levels and grades. Have a plan for introducing the main input to the rest of the class before you direct students to learn in small groups.

You can make your weekly lesson plan for your struggling readers as general or as detailed as you like. Not every activity works for every student, but once you have taught using your lesson plan for the week, you will know which areas take more planning and preparation time. Generally, more experienced classroom teachers change their weekly lesson plans as they acquire more information about their struggling readers. You might need to observe more before you make on the spot classroom decisions.

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.