ESL
Recent Newsletter Articles
Attention ESL Teachers: a Fall Conference for YOU!
Do you teach non-native speakers of English? Interested in connecting with ESL teachers from a variety of contexts statewide? The MELEd conference in November is attended by over 1200 ESL professionals, and this year ATLAS will be offering scholarships! Read More
Let’s Talk! Building Conversation into ESL Programming
Conversation circles are a great way for programs to serve the immediate needs of adult ESL learners and generate more contact hours. And for teachers looking to build more conversation activities into everyday programming, the Minnesota Literacy Council has developed a new Instructional Support Kit that focuses on listening and speaking skills. Read More
Teacher, Only You Understand Me
All adult EL teachers have heard stories from learners of struggling to make themselves understood outside of the classrooms, but it can be difficult to know where to begin to help. Pronunciation is such a large topic; how can a teacher tackle it in a multicultural classroom when there are already a hundred other skills to teach? Read More
Free Training Opportunity: Creating and Maintaining a Comprehensive Adult Citizenship Education Program
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Office of Citizenship is hosting a training opportunity on May 8, 2019, to provide adult educators and program administrators with ideas and best practices for creating a comprehensive adult citizenship education curriculum and program. Read More
TABE 11&12 and CASAS GOALS: Transition FAQs
Have you made the transition to the new test series? You still have time, but remember that as of July 1, 2019, all ABE learners must be transitioned to either TABE 11&12 or CASAS GOALS. Check out these FAQs! Read More
Mental Health Awareness
Does your student show any of the following symptoms: sad, isolating, trouble focusing, difficulty sleeping or sleeping too much? If so, they may be struggling with mental health challenges. Read More
Intentional Phonics Magic
This article describes how several Columbia Heights/Fridley teachers and volunteers are working together to provide phonics lessons to small groups of ELLs, resulting in overall reading progress because students are not stalling out due to gaps in their English phonics knowledge. Read More
Strike Lesson Planning Gold with the CareerKit Project
The CareerKit Project consists of lessons and materials that introduce learners to careers in ten sectors. The kits were developed to introduce learners to careers in each sector, while also building core reading, writing, research and math skills. Read More
Free Online Training for ESL Classroom Volunteers
To get new classroom volunteers started off on the right foot, Minnesota Literacy Council has updated their free online training course for adult ESL classroom volunteers. The new course, Volunteer in the Adult ESL Classroom provides a clear and engaging introduction to the knowledge and skills that classroom volunteers will need to support adult ESL learners. Read More
Free Citizenship Resources for Teachers and Programs
The Minnesota Literacy Council website offers a number of free resources to programs that are interesting in starting to offer citizenship classes at their site, whether classes are led by professional teachers or volunteers, in a formal classroom setting or one-on-one tutoring, or anything else in between. Read More