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Triumphant Geometry Teaching in Georgia

Triumphant Geometry Teaching in Georgia

Amid Philadelphia’s crisp autumn air, WIDA held its 2016 National Conference with the theme of Drawing on Life’s Experiences: Designing Bright Futures. From concurrent sessions and keynote speakers to networking with education devotees, helping students achieve successful results in and out of the ESL classroom and content classroom was on the tip of everyone’s tongue. Most helpful were the opportunities to listen to presentations on educative innovation for English language learners.

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Making Meaning in Content Classrooms

Making Meaning in Content Classrooms

Science and math are content classrooms that pose peculiar challenges for ELLs not only because of the specific academic vocabulary but the layers of meaning required to truly excel. At the WIDA 2016 National Conference, Rita MacDonald, on behalf of WIDA, centralized her presentation not on the content of math and science but on process of establishing meaning among students in those content classrooms.

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6 Steps to Help Your Newcomer Students in the Content Classroom at the Secondary Level

6 Steps to Help Your Newcomer Students in the Content Classroom at the Secondary Level

Do you have a newcomer center for your school or a newcomer program for your new students? Newcomer students face mounting challenges when they enroll a new school. Besides the obvious language barrier, they are facing culture and social challenges in their classroom.

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Strategies for Boosting Test Scores 24.7%

Strategies for Boosting Test Scores 24.7%

According to the study done by Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, using a word to word dictionary as testing accommodations for English Language Learners shows testing improvement of 0.247 mean. (24.7% improvement)*.

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Tips for Teaching Academic Vocabulary

Tips for Teaching Academic Vocabulary

At a very basic level we define academic vocabulary as the vocabulary that is critical for students to understand the concepts of the content taught in schools.  It is vocabulary that supports student comprehension of instructional content.

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State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Announces More Than 10,000 Students Earn New State Seal of Biliteracy

State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Announces More Than 10,000 Students Earn New State Seal of Biliteracy

More than 10,000 graduating high school students across California have earned the first state recognition in the nation for achieving proficiency in multiple languages, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson announced today.

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Governor Cuomo Signs Bill to Recognize High School Graduates Who Demonstrate Proficiency in Multiple Languages

Governor Cuomo Signs Bill to Recognize High School Graduates Who Demonstrate Proficiency in Multiple Languages

Governor Cuomo today signed into law a bill to recognize New York State high school graduates who demonstrate academic excellence in attaining proficiency in one or more languages other than English with a state seal of biliteracy.

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Summer Learning with Parents and Families

Summer Learning with Parents and Families

Summer is here.  Some of us ask, “Where did the time go?”  Summer has always been associated with fun and relaxation, particularly for our students.  They look forward to summer.  This is their time to relax and I say let them relax. They deserve it!

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Home-School Communications

Home-School Communications

As I interviewed parents forEnhancing Partnerships Between Teachers and Parents of English Language Learners, I was expecting public school parents to complain that they did not have good communication with school personnel.

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The True Honorees for Asian and Pacific American Month

The True Honorees for Asian and Pacific American Month

May is Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month. This is the month that we basically honor, celebrate or recognize the achievements of Asian-Americans and/or Pacific Americans.

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