Teaching Adolescent English Language Learners: Essential Strategies for Middle and High School

Are your adolescent English language learners struggling to read, write, and learn across subject areas? Are they making it to graduation?

This practical guide is grounded in the latest research on adolescent literacy development. It features effective strategies for content teachers, ESL teachers, and guidance counselors to ensure that middle and high school English language learners can engage with complex grade-level content-area instruction, develop oral and written language for academic purposes, and graduate. It is written by exemplary secondary school teachers who know firsthand the challenges of educating adolescent ELLs, and who have implemented these strategies effectively in their classes.

As Deborah Short highlights in the foreword, this book also offers much more than teaching strategies. It is about the social dimension of learning in secondary schools; of shaping one’s identity; and of bridging the boundaries between school and home, school and work, native languages and English, and in-school and out-of-school literacies.

Key Features

• Clear teaching principles to inform practice
• A wealth of strategies and best practices that promote reading, writing, listening, speaking, and learning in every subject area
• Creative ways to use and support the native language
• Guidelines and practical advice for counselors regarding ELLs
• End of chapter checklists to guide teacher reflection

Nancy Cloud, Ed.D., is professor emerita in the Feinstein School of Education and Human Development at Rhode Island College in Providence. Previously, she coordinated the M.Ed. in TESL program where she taught graduate courses on second language and literacy development, as well as the appropriate assessment of English learners (ELs). She continues her work as an educational consultant to school districts focused on responsive curriculum and instruction for K–12 ELs. She is a nationally renowned author and educator.

Judah Lakin, M.Ed., is a bilingual and content ESL social studies teacher at Hope High School in Providence, RI. He received his B.A. in history from Brown University and his M.Ed. in teaching English as a second language from Rhode Island College. Lakin also cocoordinates the after-school tutoring program and the family-engagement committee. He has dedicated his efforts to helping undocumented immigrants gain access to higher education. He founded Higher Inc., a nonprofit aimed at giving scholarships to undocumented students who need financial assistance to attend college. Lakin has traveled extensively, including to the Dominican Republic, Ghana, and Guatemala to visit and learn from the families and communities he teaches here in the United States.

Erin Leininger, EdDis the Middle School Curriculum Coordinator at International School–Manila in the Philippines. She has taught diverse groups of adolescent English learners in various national and international contexts including California, Rhode Island, Kuwait, China, and the Philippines. Leininger uses her experience of teaching academic English language development and co-teaching with content teachers to develop, teach, and advocate for curriculum that is conceptually rigorous, language rich, and developmentally equitable for all learners.

Laura Maxwell, M.A.T., is an English teacher at Hope High School in Providence, RI, and a writing fellow through the Rhode Island Writing Project. Since 1997, she has taught in urban schools in Providence and in Cape Town, South Africa. Before becoming a teacher, Maxwell worked in the nonprofit sector for the Coalition of Essential Schools and the Education Commission of the States. She received her M.A. in teaching English from Brown University.