Integrating ELL Students into General Education Classrooms

This article provides 4 good ways to be inclusive of English Language Learners in your general education classroom.

1. Use pre-test results to plan lessons and drive instruction. Pre-test results determine what areas to teach and review. "English language learners typically need practice in decoding, vocabulary, and early reading skills. With younger ELLs, oral instruction is the perfect method for creating and sustaining interest -- teachers can use their body language and voice in addition to songs, poems, jazz chants, role-plays, and dialogues." (Sasson, 2014)
2. "Get to know you" activities. Pre-assessing students with "get to know you" activities helps assess what they actually know, which determines instruction. One type of pre-assessment activity includes oral, reading, and writing questionnaires.
3. Use results of pre-tests to engage ELLs. You can change their future works depending on what they know and what they don't know. Meet their needs.
4. Differentiated reading lessons. In a differentiated reading lesson, the teacher can adapt the task to two or three different levels, enabling the student to choose the level at which they can work best.

Sasson, D. (2014). Integrating ELL Students in General Education Classes. [online] Edutopia. Available at: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/integrating-ells-general-education-classes-dorit-sasson [Accessed 6 Nov. 2017].