Langley is a multicultural school district and that welcomes the opportunity for English Language Learners to become part of our classroom landscape. Ensuring that your ELL students are receiving personalized instruction can often be time-consuming, so communication with your ELL teacher can ease this burden. Another way to assist classroom teachers is to use the resources available on the recently launched sd35ell.ca, which is the official website for our ELL department.
The website hosts a weekly blog that features ways to support inclusive education, not limited to ELL learners. It also contains resources, websites and iPad Apps, along with information on ways to tailor your lessons to best support ELL learners. You can follow our twitter account @LangleySIOP to receive updates on new blog posts and interesting articles about ELL learners.
Below are tools that can be used for the whole class, but will especially benefit ELL learners.
Writeabout: (Free) Students become part of an online community where their posts are read by other classes. It is a tool to teach revision, editing, publishing and includes lesson plans to assist teachers. You can use other writing topics posted, create your own, and choose how public or private you want their answers to be. Applicable for K-12. |
Kidblog: $30/year, great privacy. | Edublog: Free or $40 PRO | Weebly Edu: Free or $40 PRO |
World Vuze: (Free) Post questions to receive global feedback or answer questions. Use for graphing answers, comparing ideas, interviews, and other creative ways. Questions may be posed in another language encouraging ELL students to retain their first language. |
Below are ways to facilitate ELL learners beyond the classroom, as most students have either a computer or iPad at home. If not, there are other ways to ensure they have other opportunities to use technology to complete projects or assignments.
Spelling City: (Free or $53/year for Premium) Play games to practice vocabulary or spelling words via computers or iPads. Teachers can create assignments to be completed at home, have students practice their test (spelling or vocab focused), and parents can keep track of student progress. |
RazKids: (Costs $100USD/year) Read more from this previous blog post on RazKids. Encourages students to explore books at their level and parents can track their progress. Ask if your ELL teacher has the option of RazKids or if you can share a subscription with other teachers for a select # of students. |