Ready-to-go English Language Development tasks that focus on students "doing the doing" of talking, reading, listening, and responding. In recent years, the percentage of English Language Learners (ELLs) has increased in almost every state, so most teachers are faced with the challenge of teaching literacy to students acquiring English alongside English-speaking students. However, in many integrated learning situations, English Language Development (ELD) instruction is strikingly different than the teaching we provide students whose first language is English. The Big Book of Tasks for English Language Development helps teachers meet that challenge head-on! Bestselling author and esteemed education consultant Nancy Akhavan shows that teaching multilingual learners requires changing our instruction to focus on practices that have high impact for students as they acquire language. Yet it’s not about doing more— it’s about doing smarter. It’s about having high expectations for all students and providing scaffolds to support students at all levels of English language proficiency as they learn and grow more confident. All the ready-to-go activities in the book Center on active tasks where students do the thinking, talking, reading, and writing, with appropriate support Activate the domains of language — listening, speaking, reading, and writing — and recognize that these do not develop at the same rate Honor the continuum of language development and build on what students can do Provide teaching tools such as learning targets, suggestions for when to use a task, basic instructions and "teacher talk" for launching a task, and "Watch Fors and Work-Arounds" Focus on the linguistic assets multilingual learners bring to the classroom and provide opportunities to help them collaborate with peers With Nancy Akhavan’s signature straightforward, teacher-friendly style, this book offers an uplifting reminder that with the right teaching strategies, educators can support multilingual learners to achieve their full potential and thrive in their learning journeys.

Using strengths-based approaches to support development in mathematics It’s time to re-imagine what’s possible and celebrate the brilliance multilingual learners bring to today’s classrooms. Innovative teaching strategies can position these learners as leaders in mathematics. Yet, as the number of multilingual learners in North American schools grows, many teachers have not had opportunities to gain the competencies required to teach these learners effectively, especially in disciplines such as mathematics. Multilingual learners—historically called English Language Learners—are expected to interpret the meaning of problems, analyze, make conjectures, evaluate their progress, and discuss and understand their own approaches and the approaches of their peers in mathematics classrooms. Thus, language plays a vital role in mathematics learning, and demonstrating these competencies in a second (or third) language is a challenging endeavor. Based on best practices and the authors’ years of research, this guide offers practical approaches that equip grades K-8 teachers to draw on the strengths of multilingual learners, partner with their families, and position these learners for success. Readers will find: • A focus on multilingual students as leaders • A strength-based approach that draws on students’ life experiences and cultural backgrounds • An emphasis on maintaining high expectations for learners’ capacity for mastering rigorous content • Strategies for representing concepts in different formats • Stop and Think questions throughout and reflection questions at the end of each chapter • Try It! Implementation activities, student work examples, and classroom transcripts With case studies and activities that provide a solid foundation for teachers’ growth and exploration, this groundbreaking book will help teachers and teacher educators engage in meaningful, humanized mathematics instruction.

The Comprehensive Handbook for Scaffolding Students’ Literacy Growth Our readers and writers must "do the doing" if they are to succeed. In The Big Book of Literacy Tasks, Nancy Akhavan offers an instructional plan designed to yield independent effort and engagement. 75 tasks in beautiful full-color two-pagers ensure gradual release by moving more swiftly from the "I do" teacher phase to the "you do," when students benefit from the healthy amount of struggle that is the hallmark of learning. (And spoiler alert: you kick the habit of hovering, over-explaining, and rescuing!) Backed by research and thoughtfully arranged to make day-to-day planning easier, this groundbreaking book provides: Reading and writing tasks organized into 3 sections—everyday skills, weekly practices, and sometime engagements requiring greater complexity Mini-lessons that are essential— whether you use a reading program, a workshop approach, or are just transitioning to Balanced Literacy Colorful teaching charts allowing you to quickly grasp the high points of each lesson A clear task structure for introducing and managing the stages as you move students toward independent practice Mid-task "Watch Fors" and "Work Arounds" showing how to coach without risking helicopter teaching Amazing scaffolding tips for meeting the needs of a range of learners Sample student work that offers valuable insights on how to use the tasks as formative assessments Practical and engaging, The Big Book of Literacy Tasks gives you a clear framework for "working the minds" of your students, helping them forge their own path to becoming better readers and writers.

Secondary ELA teachers, be excited: here at last is that crash course in utilizing the best of what we already know about teaching reading, writing, and language to ensure our English learners thrive. Take Penny Kittle and Donalyn Miller’s reader’s workshops. Take Kylene Beers and Robert Probst’s "signposts." Take the best writing techniques advanced by the National Writing Project. Take Jim Burke’s essential questions for life. Award-winning EL authorities Mandy Stewart and Holly Genova describe immediate adaptations you can put in place to simultaneously build your ELs’ language and literacy, while affirming their languages, cultures, and unique lived experiences. A rare blend of the humane and practical, But Does This Work with English Learners? is a book on how to leverage our ELs’ full linguistic repertoires in the ELA classroom, while remaining sensitive to those barriers that could restrict learning. With this book as your guide, you’ll learn how to: Look beyond the labels, and better understand the diversity of ELs, English language proficiency levels, and sociopolitical influences Teach and assess through reader’s workshop, recognizing where comprehensible input fits in and adapting recurring features like support, choice, conferencing, and academic conversations Teach and assess through writer’s workshops, including modifications to quick-writes, minilessons, conferencing, sharing, and more Teach through structures and community with classroom schedules and behavior norms, and activities like All About Me Paragraphs and Six Things You Need to Know About Me Listicles Embrace identity in inquiry cycles via research and family interviews, mentor texts and essays, pictorial autobiographies, memory paragraphs, and more Answer your own FAQs such as How do I teach students if I don’t know their language? What about grammar? How do I teach the grade-level ELA standards while I teach the language? "As you read this book," Mandy and Holly write, "our hope is that you will begin to see your students as multilinguals—people who already have language as well as a wealth of knowledge and are just adding English to that great repertoire." If you have even a single English learner in your classroom, we urge you to read this book and institute its practices. Right away! "Mandy Stewart and Holly Genova have given us a primer for the evolving complexities of our classroom melting pots, a map for navigating the murky waters of regulations, and most importantly, a recipe for opening our arms to children from all over the world. They welcome them with thoughts like ‘A foreign accent is a sign of bravery.’" ~Gretchen Bernabei, Coauthor of Fun-Sized Academic Writing for Serious Learning "After reading this book, I was left with the feeling that I learned something new on every page--something that I had previously either wondered about or struggled to understand. Mandy Stewart and Holly Genova are the guides we all need to help us understand and better address the needs of our English learners." ~Jim Burke, Author of The English Teacher’s Companion

100 ready-to-use graphic organizers that help elementary students learn Graphic organizers are a powerful metacognitive teaching and learning tool and this book features 100 graphic organizers for teachers in grades K-5—double the number of any other book on the market. These graphic organizers can be used as before learning, during learning, or after learning activities, and support students' learning in the major content areas: English language arts, science, social studies, and mathematics. Teachers can use each graphic organizer as-is or customize for their own classroom's unique needs. Tips for classroom implementation and information on how the tool supports learning A Difficulty Dial that indicates the complexity of each graphic organizer Two Student Samples demonstrating how the organizer may be used with younger and older students This book gives teachers in grades K-5 a powerful way to help students understand relationships between facts, terms, and ideas.