3 Tips for Providing High-Quality Support to English Language Learners

Many educators around the country, and around the world, are teaching English language learning (ELL) students in their classrooms. With the right instruction and resources, every ELL can develop the reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills needed to be successful, both inside and outside of the classroom.

Here are 3 tips to help you make learning more personalized and engaging for your ELLs, using the specialized resources in Raz-Plus ELL Edition.

#1: Appeal to a Variety of Learning Styles

Just like students learning in their native language, English language learners have different learning styles, and the best language lessons include tasks for visual, kinesthetic, and auditory learners.

• Visual learners will embrace activities centered around ELL Content Picture Packs, which feature categorized visuals and photos that develop vocabulary skills.
• Kinesthetic learners will make language gains when they perform Reader’s Theater Scripts to experience language in action.
• Auditory learners will benefit from listening to an array of recorded Leveled Books that feature appropriate English pronunciations.

#2: Focus on Conversational English

One of the best ways to help students become comfortable with conversational English is to help them learn how to identify and respond to conversational cues.

• ELL Language Skill Packs include lessons that guide students in listening and responding to conversational cues.
• ELL Comic Conversations excite and motivate learners by framing common social and academic situations in the comic strip genre.
• ELL Vocabulary Books incorporate best practices for teaching ELLs at all levels of proficiency, with an emphasis on content-based themes.

#3: Encourage Reading in High-Interest Topics

When students find a book they love to read, language learning develops more quickly and easily.

• Graphic and Comic Books offer colorful illustrations, humor, and characters that keep readers engaged.
• ELL Leveled Reader Packs are the perfect ELL companion for our Leveled Books, providing the content-based support ELLs need to become successful readers.
• Serial Books encourage students to follow character arcs and plot twists.
• Themed Nonfiction Series provide collections of leveled books built around engaging central themes to help facilitate differentiated instruction.

The ELL Edition is specifically designed to provide a number of research-based resources and teaching strategies for helping English language learners achieve success with social and academic English. Available with a subscription to Raz-Plus, the ELL Edition's resources are organized in content area topics at varying grade ranges, and include integrated grammar and vocabulary support.

With these content-based and thematic-based resources, teachers can easily provide explicit instruction and practice with level-appropriate skills and strategies.