SNAPSHOT: For many teachers and administrators the challenge of educating the ELL student can feel overwhelming. Many content teachers feel ill-equipped to work with students who struggle with academic language and are often unaccustomed to the structure or customs of the US or Canadian classroom. How can administrators better prepare teachers for this daunting challenge?

In Proven Strategies for Teaching ELLs, Dr. Suzanne Irujo will provide tools educators can use to improve communication with ELLs and their parents and create a more successful learning environment.

Dr. Irujo also will dispel many myths about teaching ELLs and provide specific techniques on how to improve teaching practices for English language learners in English, math, social studies and science.

Audioconference CD: $197 CD includes audio only. You will receive a link to Powerpoint slides to print out or view on your computer. Need to pay by purchase order? FAX POs to 815-461-5647. Add $7.50 for shipping/handling To order by phone, call 207-632-1954.

Author of several books on English language learners, Dr. Irujo has been a teacher and teacher educator in the fields of bilingual education, ESL, and foreign language education for 30 years. Her public school experience includes teaching elementary bilingual education and ESL, teaching high school ESL and Spanish, and administering a K-12 ESL program.

In this 90-minute presentation, Dr. Irujo describes how to identify the varied needs of ELLs from their profiles,how to integrate their native language into instruction, and how to structure the classroom so ELLs feel accepted and are better able to learn.

Because academic language poses a major stumbling block for English language learners Dr. Irujo also will present a successful approach to integrating academic language into math, English, science and social studies lessons.

CONFERENCE TOPICS: Dr. Suzanne Irujo will begin her presentation by demonstrating how teachers can build on the same differentiation techniques they use with non-ELLs when working with English Language Learners. Other specific topics she will cover include:

• How to communicate better with ELLs and their parents
  
  
• How to incorporate the ELLs' native language in instruction
  
  
• How to structure the classroom so ELLs feel accepted and are better able to learn
  
  
• How to ensure that ELLs succeed at given tasks
  
  
• Why ELLs have more difficulty with academic language than with conversational language
  
  
• How to contextualize academic tasks to ensure that ELLS succeed at them.
  
  
• How to integrate academic language into lessons in the four major subjects.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Dr. Suzanne Irjuo, professor emerita of education at Boston University, holds an Ed.D. in applied psycholinguistics, an M.Ed. in bilingual education, and a B.A. in Spanish. She is the author of Teaching Bilingual Children: Beliefs and Behaviors (Heinle & Heinle, 1998), series editor of the four-volume series Integrating the ESL Standards Into Classroom Practice (TESOL, 2000), co-editor of Collaborative Conversations Among Language Teacher Educators (TESOL, 2004), and co-author of the Academic Notebooks: The Language of Match (Course Crafters Publishing and Perfection Learning, 2007).

CONTACT INFO:

Educational Research Newsletter
PO Box 2347
South Portland, ME 04116
Tel: 207-632-1954
Fax: 815-461-5647