Best Practices for Teaching ELLs

The student population of English language learners (ELLs) has been steadily rising in U.S. schools due to immigration. Many districts, which formerly had homogenous and predictable student enrollment and issues, are now scrambling to find the resources to teach ELLs well. What should schools do to bring English learners up to speed academically to ready them for college or careers in a new land? What steps are schools taking to understand the variety of issues—not only academic but also social, emotional, and economic—that these comparatively new students and their families face? Articles should address how schools and classroom practices address the needs of the whole child while keeping the focus on student mastery of essential knowledge and skills to make a rewarding future.

ASCD Express is looking for short, 600–1,000-word essays on the theme "Best Practices for Teaching ELLs." Guidelines for submissions are here. Send us your submissions by February 20, 2012.