Teaching English Language Learners

Michaela Colombo has been involved in the field of educating English language learners for nearly 20 years. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Leadership in Schooling program at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where she teaches courses in methods of sheltered content instruction. Prior to accepting a full-time position at the University of Massachusetts, Dr. Colombo worked for five years as Supervisor of the English Language Acquisition Program for the Methuen, Massachusetts Public Schools. Here, she drew upon her background as a bilingual education and ESL teacher to plan and implement professional development for mainstream teachers and supervise teachers of English language learners. Dr. Colombo is an active member of the Massachusetts Department of Education's English Language Learners/Bilingual Education Advisory Council. Her dissertation, which was recognized as semi-finalist for best dissertation by the National Association of Bilingual Education, investigated the effectiveness of professional development for mainstream teachers of Latino students. Dr. Colombo has presented professional development for mainstream teachers of English language learners at national and state conferences. Dana Furbush has been a teacher of English Language Learners since 2002. During this time she has focused on curriculum and instruction for middle school English Language Learners and mainstream content-area teachers. Ms Furbush draws upon her experience with English Language Learners in mainstream classrooms to plan and implement professional development for mainstream teachers throughout the Methuen Public Schools. She is also adjunct instructor for Cambridge College, where she teaches Enhancing English Language Learning in Elementary Classrooms, a course designed to prepare mainstream content-area teachers with an understanding of language acquisition, cultural diversity, and inclusion- model education. Ms Furbush has authored and co-authored several professional development guides for mainstream teachers in the Methuen Public Schools, including The English Language Learner Rubric and Professional Guide and How Do You Say.., a Spanish-English guide to quick notes home to parents. In addition to her experience and training in the field of second language acquisition and professional development for mainstream teachers of English Language Learners, Dana Furbush brings to this publication her day-to-day experiences working in the schools with content-area middle-school teachers

Chapter 1. Demographics, History, and the Changing Roles of Teachers Chapter 2. Second Language Acquisition: What Mainstream Teachers Need to Know Chapter 3. Culture, Adolescents, and Culturally Responsive Instruction Chapter 4. Academic Literacy in the Content Areas Chapter 5. Planning for Enduring Understanding Chapter 6. Connecting With Context: Assessments and Essential Questions Chapter 7. Assessing Content and Language Chapter 8. Making Content Comprehensible Chapter 9. Building Academic Language Chapter 10. Putting It Together in the Science Classroom Chapter 11. Putting It Together in the Mathematics Classroom Chapter 12. Putting It Together in the History Classroom Chapter 13. Putting It Together in the English Language Arts Classroom

This comprehensive discussion of content instruction for English language learners provides detailed information on planning and implementing effective instruction in math, science, social studies, and language arts. The authors include a thorough treatment of topics that middle and secondary teachers are often not exposed to in their teacher training, including second language acquisition, academic literacy, and building academic language, all discussed in the context of the content area classroom. The second part of the text devotes a separate chapter to each of the four content areas discussed, complete with lesson plans prepared by master teachers and mini-lessons for language development. The entire book is filled with practical ideas for making content area information accessible to English language learners. This is a resource that content area teachers will come back to again and again -- Michaela Wyman Colombo and Dana Furbush