WeAreTeachers Blog

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Teaching students with varying levels of English proficiency takes a lot of skill.  Not only are teachers required to teach core curriculum, but they are required to teach it to students who don't always understand everything they are saying.  That takes skill.  And tenacity.  And a lot of creativity.

With this in mind, we joined up with Pearson to ask teachers for their best ideas for teaching in classrooms with various levels of English proficiency.  The creative and innovative responses we got went above and beyond our high expectations. And we're so excited to share with you a few of our favorite ideas.  Read them, learn from them, and use them in your classroom.

1. Building a House on a Map:  Teacher Jennie Wirth got her ELL students talking (out loud and in English) by having them draw the step-by-step instructions on how to build a house and then collaborate to describe the process out loud (and on video).

Teacher feedback:  "My students were really enthusiastic about the video we made.  They were really surprised that they were going to be filmed and very anxious to do their best.  In the end, hearing themselves speak (out loud and in English!) was an inspiration-- to the parents, to my colleagues and to the students themselves!"

1. Collaborative Learning Centers:  Cherry Williams turned her classroom into an interactive workshop when she divided the classroom into various learning centers and then had the students work in teams to master each center's objective.


2. Poetry in Action:  Renny Fong got his students writing—and talking—when he had them write and videotape their own poetry.


3. School News in Motion:  When the school's weekly bulletin went over her ELL student's heads, teacher Grace Rosas had her students create their own weekly bulletin—and then perform it in the form of a skit in front of the class.


4. Hands-on Literacy:  Paula Gross doesn't just read books to her students—she lets them listen to the same books in the listening station, does finger plays with puppets and incorporates literature into every corner of her classroom.