Literacy Essentials for English Language Learners: Successful Transitions (Language and Literacy Series)

This new book in The Practitioner's Bookshelf Series provides research-based best practices for teaching English Language Learners in kindergarten through 5th grade. The authors demonstrate how to build on ELL students language skills, how to explain the many idiosyncrasies of the English language and U.S. school culture, and how to involve students in their own learning encouraging them to express themselves in many ways, including in their native language. This hands-on text features sample lessons and children's literature that can be used to help ELL students develop the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in school.

This accessible, evidence-based guide offers proven methods for helping children learn core content while transitioning to academic proficiency in English, challenges current conventional wisdom by demonstrating that ELL students need different instruction from struggling native English speakers, proposes a set of alternative approaches designed to make literacy programs for ELL children more meaningful and effective, and provides sample lesson plans and structures to help teachers plan culturally sensitive instruction.