The Chalk Blog

Tools to Help You Adapt Online Learning for ELs

"This is no small task!"

Curated Resources

Two-thirds.

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, more than two-thirds of children report at least one traumatic event by the age of 16. That means that the majority (NOT the minority) of students in your classroom have experienced trauma.

One.

It takes one person to make a positive impact. As an educator, YOU can be the one because you have an opportunity to support these children day in and day out. Hearing about and thinking about the trauma our children may have suffered can be awful, but…

…there is good news.

Children can recover from trauma, and you can help them do that using trauma-sensitive practices in your classroom.

Course 5066: Growing Gifts: Stories, Supports and Strategies in Gifted Education 

Everyone likes a good story. 

When Gifted Kids Don’t Have All the Answers by Judith Galbraith and Jim Delisle, is filled with stories to help the reader understand how it feels to be identified and labeled “gifted.” 

Saving time and energy with proactive teaching strategies!

“We can’t hold kids accountable for things we’ve never told them we expect. Behavior should be treated like academics. Students have to be taught the skills they need.” Erin Green, Director of National Services Operations at Boys Town, had this right!

As a former teacher of students with emotional and/or behavioral challenges, I found myself spending much of my time creating functional behavior assessments and behavior support plans, writing individualized education plans, collecting data, developing reinforcement programs and intervening in behavioral crisis. Far less of my time was spent actually teaching! And rarely did I proactively teach replacement behaviors. Can anyone relate?

This blog was originally published on November 6th, 2015, but it was so well received we wanted to share it again! We also added our Top Three Tips when working with students who are ELL.

As teachers we are constantly trying to improve ourselves, our teaching strategies, and our ways of interacting with each unique student. Learning is difficult in itself, but a language barrier makes things more complex. Below are 3 tips from Learners Edge about how to work with ELL students, along with some additional suggestions from Jennifer Marks, a teacher from Northborough, MA , who took Course 842: Achieving Success with English Language Learners.

Tip 1: Learn the culture. 

On a recent trip overseas, I was delighted to sit down with a group of people who had emigrated from Africa to Norway. In talking about what leaving their country was like (they all spoke Arabic, Norwegian, and English)—they shared how helpful it was when teachers learned about their native culture. Understanding just some of the cultural norms helped the teacher, the students, and those who had emigrated transition to a new culture in a way that felt respectful and supportive. When teachers try their best to pronounce names or to honor cultural norms (i.e. food restrictions, social mores) it helps to alleviate micro-aggressions which can feel hurtful to those who are new. 

Keeping Up With Educational Jargon

There is so much educational jargon to keep up with these days, and oftentimes it's hard to remember it all. In this video blog, Keely does an excellent job of explaining, and giving examples, on how to use the words 'accommodation,' 'modification,' and 'intervention.' Review these words and the appropriate uses for them here!

Today’s classrooms include students with disabilities, English Language Learners, gifted students, as well as other exceptionalities. Teachers need to be well-equipped with knowledge and evidence-based instructional practices to successfully support the needs (and strengths) of all learners.

Book editors, Wendy Murawski and Kathy Scott compiled and shared valuable expertise from leaders in the field of education in their book, What Really Works with Exceptional Learners. Here a sampling of some of the most helpful dos and don’ts when working with students with special needs and other exceptionalities.