A once-in-a-generation text for assisting a new generation of students.
NEW! Click to download printable charts and tables from Unlocking English Learners’ Potential for free!
Content teachers and ESOL teachers, take special note: if you’re looking for a single resource to help your English learners meet the same challenging content standards as their English-proficient peers, your search is complete. Just dip into this toolbox of strategies, examples, templates, and activities from ELL authorities Diane Staehr Fenner and Sydney Snyder. The best part? No prior training assumed! You’ll find inside every last how-to including:
- How to scaffold instruction across content and grade levels
- How to build background knowledge
- How to analyze text through close reading and text dependent questions
- How to promote oral language and vocabulary development
- How to evaluate and use formative assessment
Reviews
“Much may be debated about what English learners need in order to be successful in school, but while that debate continues, teachers need access to sensible and accessible assistance to teach language and content to English learners right now. This new book by Diane Staehr Fenner and Sydney Snyder is the book to fill that need. In clear prose, accompanied by lively classroom examples and a series of engaging application activities, the authors target the topics of culturally responsive teaching, scaffolded instruction for oral language and reading, understanding academic language, and how to formatively assess student development in these areas. There is something here for both novice teachers and their more seasoned colleagues as Staehr Fenner and Snyder skillfully bring together the necessary ingredients to help teachers advance the language and content learning of their English learners.”
“Staehr Fenner and Snyder have written a much needed and illuminating text in the field of EL education that challenges educators to re-think language pedagogy in new ways that never dichotomize theory and practice. Not only do the authors provide numerous, sound and exciting hands-on instructional recommendations but they impressively model for educators what it means to link theory to practice by anchoring their applications to a comprehensive equity and cultural wealth framework.”
“There is so much to love about Unlocking English Learners’ Potential. Diane and Sydney have created a truly readable text packed with practical suggestions for all educators who teach ELs! ESOL educators will find the focus on advocacy and leadership provides them with new ideas to take their practice to the next level. Content educators will appreciate the many easy-to-incorporate strategies for developing oral language and reading within their own academic content classes. And finally, the emphasis on teacher collaboration is vital to get everyone on board with an agenda that stresses equity and excellence for our culturally and linguistically diverse learners. This text will undoubtedly be a hit with school PLCs and teacher education programs.”
