Reading Rockets
​        Reading rockets is all about teaching students how to read. There is a specific section that provides information to assist struggling readers. This section is great for parents or teachers to help a student who needs more support in reading. Many ELLs struggle with reading, so this site could greatly benefit them. This site also has research and resources for teachers and parents to use.
            As a teacher I would use this site to gain information about research concerning ELLs and reading development. This site also has recommendations for reading topics and books. Students can learn academic grammar and language through texts if they relate to them and can use them in an authentic way (Zwiers and Crawford, 2011). This site can provide ideas for books that student can learn different aspects of grammar and language from. The reading topics can be helpful in determining what topics students would enjoy reading and talking about. It is important to find topics that students enjoy, so they can better connect with the material in an authentic way.

​Zwiers, J., & Crawford, M. (2011). Academic conversations: Classroom talk that fosters critical thinking and content understandings. Portland, Me.: Stenhouse.

 

Education Place           
​            This site has many resources, but I am focusing on the page that has graphic organizers. Graphic organizers provide a structured way for students to gain a better understanding of content. There is a diverse range of graphic organizers for all students. This site also provides all of the graphic organizers in Spanish in addition to English. This provides more opportunity for ELLs to participate fully in an activity and gain the information they need. 
            I love using graphic organizers, and I intend on using them in my classroom. I would print these out for my class to use so they could take notes with support. Since these are online I could also provide students with an online copy I they work better on the computer. These graphic organizers are great for ELLs because they provide a basis for them to start with. Ginsberg presents the strategy of using sentence frames to introduce and familiarize students with academic language (2015). Graphic organizers provide support for ELLs in the same way as sentence frames. They give students an outline of how to use language and information. The graphic organizers could also be altered to contain sentence frames to assist students who are struggling. These organizers can be used in a multitude of ways to help ELLs and all students in the classroom. 

Ginsberg, M. (2015, October 2). Reclaiming The Language for Social Justice. Retrieved June 09, 2016, from https://reclaimingthelanguage.wordpress.com/

4 Teachers
          This website has resources for teachers to integrate technology in their classrooms. There are online tools and resources for teachers to utilize. Their “tools” section is a list of links to helpful education sites. These include QuizStar, RubiStar, Assign-A-Day and Casa Notes along with many others. These resources help teacher learn how to use technology in their lesson planning, instruction and assessment. Under the Integrating technology tab there is a link to resources in Spanish.
          I would use this site to prepare materials for my class. I love using RubiStar as a basis for my rubrics. I would also utilize the resources in Spanish for my Spanish-speaking students. This would help me provide primary language support for my students. Using the student’s home language to support sheltered instruction helps increase the student’s level of comprehension (Wright, p. 296, 2010). Using primary language support would help my ELLs learn content. There are also grant resources on this site. It is always important to learn how to improve your class and school program. Learning about grant programs could teach me how to receive grants to better support my students.
 
Wright, W. E. (2010). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy, and practice (Second ed.). Philadelphia: Caslon Pub.

Teaching English 
           This page provides lesson plans for integrating English language instruction into content instruction. There are various links to lesson plans about different topics. The lessons plans have worksheets, posters, audio transcripts, images and other resources for teacher use.
            As a teacher I would use this resource to learn ways to integrate ELD into my content instruction. These lesson plans provide a good starting point to create lessons for my class. I would utilize the resources that come along with the lesson plan. The visuals, audio transcripts and worksheet help present the information to ELLs in various ways. By giving students the information in several formats they have more opportunities to learn and understand the content. Students learn in different ways so it is important to provide instruction in various ways. This site can help teachers provide instruction to meet the diverse needs of their students. 
     
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