The process of choosing good teaching materials for teaching English Language Learners needs to be student-centered. That may seem obvious, but there is a lot of pressure to just choose Common Core content and drill it home. Yes, we need to make sure they get the content, but that is probably going to require something beyond repetition and rote memory. It needs to be relevant to them and delivered in a manner they can absorb. We, the teachers, need to find alternative ways to deliver the content that builds on the English Language Learner's background knowledge. Sometimes. when we hear the words background knowledge , our minds go waaaaayyyy back to the student's cultural and linguistic roots. Yes, those are important things to build on, but sometimes the background knowledge is just what you have helped the students acquire in the last few days or weeks in your class ( Fisher, Ross & Grant, 2010) . Pay attention to their...
Resources for ESL Teachers