Tag Archives: ELL

School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Recommended Apps: Humanities and Arts: English Central

Last summer, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) announced their Best Apps for Teaching and Learning 2017. The apps encourage qualities such as creativity and collaboration, and encourage discovery and curiosity.

 

Level: Kindergarten +
Platform: iOS  and Android
Cost: FREE

The app English Central helps students learn English through the thousands of videos it makes available. Videos range from casual to formal speaking situations. The app also includes courses specifically for those entering certain professions like hotel and service and offer levels from beginner to advanced. Students can focus on specific skills like grammar, pronunciation, and useful expressions and also take assessments to see how well they are learning material.  Students can even have daily lessons delivered to their phones, if they choose. A tip to make English Central even more useful would be to suggest that ESL students take the app home with them to share with other family members who might also be learning English.

English Central has a Teacher Portal which offers webinars, video lessons, and other tools specifically for teachers. The app has been reviewed by the MidAmerica Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, and also by Busy Teachers.org who posted this detailed review.

Watch this quick video to see English Central in action:

CMLE, Communication, Research

We really need you – for ten minutes!

The survey closes Monday,
so get in on this NOW!!!

Multilingual

We need your help! We are looking for information and experience from library people all across Minnesota – and that means you!

Below is the information about this survey; if you choose to take it, this will be given to you again on the first page.

Please take a few minutes to fill this out; and then please share it with absolutely everyone in your library, and any other library person in the state of Minnesota!

Two people will be randomly selected to each win a $30 gift card from Amazon, and everyone will be able to receive the results we find.

Thank you, in advance, for your help !!

 

Minnesota residents speak more than one hundred languages at home.

Libraries of all types are working to serve their community members, including people speaking all of these languages. Serving Emerging Bilingual community members can present some challenges to the traditional library services you are already providing, as well as bringing in new strategies and ideas for providing service to your community.

Who are Emerging Bilingual community members? They may, or may not, already be using your library. They speak languages other than English as their first language, and are learning English or speaking it fluently as a second language (or third, or fourth!).

We want to know how it is going for you! We are interested in the things that are great – successes you have had, good resources you have found, community groups you have connected with. And we want to know where you see opportunities for improvement – resources, funding, training, time, and anything else that is an obstacle to your library providing outstanding service to everyone, regardless of language. Continue reading We really need you – for ten minutes! →

CMLE, Communication, Research

We need you! (Yes, YOU! I’m talking specifically to you!)

MultilingualWe need your help!  We need to know if your library is doing tons of things for English Language Learners (Emerging Bilingual patrons), or what we can do across the state to help you to provide more materials, or if this is not an issue in your community!

If you are in a library, no matter what you do or your experience, we need you for this survey!

Two people will be randomly selected to each win a $30 gift card from Amazon, and everyone will be able to receive the results we find.

Below is the information about this survey.

Please take a few minutes to fill this out; and then share it with absolutely everyone in your library, and any other library person in the state of Minnesota!

Continue reading We need you! (Yes, YOU! I’m talking specifically to you!) →

Conference, Research

CFP: Improving Library Services in Support of International Students and English as a Second Language (ESL) Learners

ELL
CMLE members: I know many of you are working with international patrons, and patrons who are emerging bilingual/English is their second language. This is a good opportunity to share your work with other people! If you would like some help with this proposal, or with writing about your work – just check in with us at CMLE Headquarters! We are always available to help you with research, writing, conference proposals, or anything else you might need!

Call for Chapter Proposals 

Improving Library Services in Support of International Students and English as a Second Language (ESL) Learners (working title) 

Editors – Leila Rod-Welch & Kendra Skellen  
Proposal submission deadline: April 30, 2017   
Continue reading CFP: Improving Library Services in Support of International Students and English as a Second Language (ESL) Learners →

General, Public, School Media Specialist

ELL students learn literacy with help from photography

Use photos to help students learning English

At CMLE, we know for our member libraries (and for most libraries) assisting those who are learning English can be an important part of their job! Check out our previous post about the great work taking place at the Long Prairie branch.

This article from Edutopia discusses how photography can help students with their literacy. It includes reference to Wendy Ewald who has done extensive work on the subject. By learning to verbally reflect on and analyze photos, students get used to organizing their thoughts, a skill which translates well to writing.

There are five strategies that use photography to help develop literacy skills:

  • Focus – students notice details and describe what they are seeing
  • Portraits – the article shares several different exercises that utilize portraits, like learning about camera angle and the intention of the photographer in taking the portrait
  • Building Vocabulary and Using Evidence – using a photograph from a past time period, have students list the things they notice, and use this evidence to draw conclusions about when the photo was taken, who the people were, how they were feeling
  • Perspective Taking – students photograph an object from several different angles and notice the effect that the angle has on the tone of the photograph.
  • Telling a Story – students each take a picture they feel tells a story, then trade photos with a partner, who then interpret for themselves the story being told. Students can discuss their interpretations, and eventually, write them out.