I’ll begin posting new questions and answers in late August, and during the summer will be sharing thematic posts bringing together responses on similar topics from the past three years. You can see those collections from the first two years here.
I’m alternating those posts with interviews I’m doing with authors about their new education books. So far this summer, I’ve interviewed:
‘There Are So Many Inspirational Teachers Out There': An Interview With Meenoo Rami
‘A More Beautiful Question': An Interview With Warren Berger
Teaching Without Connecting Is ‘Futile': An Interview With Annette Breaux & Todd Whitaker
‘Myths & Lies’ That Threaten Our Schools: An Interview With David Berliner & Gene Glass
‘Digital Leadership': An Interview With Eric Sheninger
Today’s theme is on teaching English Language Learners. Previous themes have been:
Best Ways To Begin & End The School Year
I’ll be spending the summer organizing questions and answers for the next school year, and there is always room for more!
You can send questions to me at lferlazzo@epe.org.When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it’s selected or if you’d prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.
You can also contact me on Twitter at @Larryferlazzo.
Anyone whose question is selected for this weekly column can choose one free book from a variety of education publishers.
Also, you can listen to ten minute interviews I’ve done with contributors to this column at my BAM! Radio Show.
Lastly, remember that you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via email or RSS Reader.
And, now, following an excerpt from one of those posts, here’s a list of all my columns related to teaching English Language Learners:
From 2013/14
To Help ELLs, We Need to Understand ‘How Language Learning Works’
Staff from Stanford’s “Understanding Language,” Mary Cappellini and Paul Boyd-Batstone share their thoughts in this post. I also include comments from readers.
‘Respecting Assets That ELLs Bring To A School Community’
Four educators -- Karen Nemeth, Judie Haynes, David Deubelbeiss and Julie Goldman -- provide guest responses here.
From 2012/13
Many Ways To Help Students Develop Academic Vocabulary
Several educator/authors - Marilee Sprenger; Jane Hill and Kirsten Miller; and Maria Gonzalez - provide guest responses.
From 2011/12
Helping Long-Term ELL’s & Evaluating ELL Teachers Fairly
Katie Hull Sypnieski, the best teacher I’ve ever seen in the classroom, and staff from the American Federation of Teachers researching teacher evaluation contribute their responses.
Ways the “Next Generation” of Standardized Tests Should Treat ELL’s
Representatives from the two groups of states preparing the new assessments, the SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium, or SBAC, and The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers Consortium, or PARCC, contribute responses.
I hope you’ve found this summary useful and, again, keep those questions coming!