The Essential Guide for Educating Beginning English Learners

Put all English learners on the path to success—right from the start!

Beginning English learners are at risk of being lost in a system that doesn't know how to reach them. With more and more ELs entering U.S. schools every year, educators need to act quickly to create school- and classroom-based programs that work. Veteran educators Debbie Zacarian and Judie Haynes provide templates and tools—along with vignettes illustrating real-world challenges—to help teachers and administrators: Create a welcoming environment for English learners and their families who are unfamiliar with the American education system; Reach out to students from literacy and non-literacy-oriented homes; Engage parents to become a part of the school community; Learn strategies for teaching beginning level ELs across the curriculum; Develop instructional models for students with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE); Build sensitive practices for students who have experienced trauma

The Essential Guide for Educating Beginning English Learners provides a realistic and comprehensive framework for effectively reaching and teaching this growing population.

“This book provides a wonderful look at the complexities of providing newcomers with a welcoming school environment and appropriate instruction.”

—Michelle DaCosta, Bilingual Resource Teacher

Framingham Public Schools, MA

“This book gets at the heart of working with beginning ELs and helps educators gain a complete understanding of these students' needs and the factors that influence them.”

—Yvonne S. Freeman, Professor of Bilingual Education

The University of Texas at Brownsville