Real Talk Intervention

I May Be Certified, But Do I Feel Qualified? If you’re like us, you took your ESL certification test for one inspiring reason  -  your district mandated it. And despite the rigorous preparation provided by taking that test, we still felt unprepared for the actual reality of beginner and intermediate English learners in our classrooms. This year close to a million Texas students are classified as English Language Learners or ELLs, according to PEIMS data released by TEA. Teaching English Language Learners is certainly one of the biggest obstacles we encounter as high school teachers. Districts throughout Texas have been, with varying levels of speed and enthusiasm, accepting this new reality. More and more of our students are actively engaged in the process of learning the English language - even though that may be not be what we are actively engaged in teaching them. The bald fact is that nowhere in the high school standards does it call for us to teach phonics, ve...

In the final part of our three-part English Language Learner series we talk with an ESL specialist who spent the last five years turning a large 5A high school from an intimidating gauntlet into a home for our beginner level and new-to-the-country English Language Learners. She shares her journey of discovering that - just because high school students don't cry when they arrive at your high school in the morning - it doesn't mean they don't need your emotional support just as much as that clinging elementary school kid. Her compassionate system of affective intervention with both students AND teachers has resulted in impressive increased academic success - increased rates of credit completion, increased STAAR passing and the achievement of some pretty lofty higher education goals. Listen to our podcast here ! Music courtesy of The Creative Commons. http://www.bensound.com Like us on Facebook  or follow us on Twitter @Intervene4Real. You can subscribe to us on ...

We are honored this week to share with you the fascinating conversation we had with an exceptional young man - Ali. He is an entrepreneur and soon-to-be high school graduate who came to this country as a Iranian refugee only two years ago. Ali shared with us his experiences traveling all over the world as he escaped Iran and sought asylum in America, and, once here, his amazing journey from limited English proficiency to high school graduate in only two years. Ali is a young man with an incredible perspective and a message for all of us committed to helping students like him. Listen to his story and ignite your practice here . For more stories and inspiration for your student-centered classroom subscribe to us on iTunes or Stitcher or follow our blog here. Music courtesy of The Creative Commons http://www.bensound.com

Almost 1 in every 10 students in American public schools right now is learning to speak English.  At the secondary level, where we typically aren't expecting to teach basic English-language skills in our classrooms, our students are confronting the problems we tackle on our podcast - how do students learn at the high levels required of them by the standards with their educational gaps - compounded by the additional issue of needing to learn a brand new language simultaneously. In our three part English Language Learner intervention series we talk with three different stakeholders in ELL education to get their perspective on what we're doing, how we're doing it, and how we can improve. In today's podcast we speak with Juliana Orcasitas, a late-in-life immigrant to the United States who raised two young children as English language learners in the public school system, while being an English language learner herself. Now she works in public schools as a math interve...

It's the first full episode of Real Talk Intervention - the podcast! Tune in to hear our conversation on standards-based education and the standards-based classroom. Should you be writing your student expectation on the board every morning? All along has THIS actually been the secret to high levels of student engagement? Probably not! But listen to find out what we think. Stefanie shares an intervention success with ELL learners and shares some curriculum suggestions for ELLs and other struggling English learners. You can follow us at http://feeds.feedburner.com/RealTalkIntervention Or listen to the episode here: The Standards Based Classroom If you want to be a part of our next episode, please leave feedback here or on our Facebook page: Like us here! Music courtesy of the Creative Commons www.bensound.com