The ESL Teaching Podcast

In today’s episode, I am chatting with Molly Badrawy all about lesson planning for ELs and the realities of working in a low incidence district. Molly Badrawy is a full-time ESOL teacher in  New Hampshire, and a freelance consultant at FaCES, Fair Culture and English Services, providing customized cultural guidance and language instruction for and individual adult language learners and organizatio...

In today’s episode, I speak with Kristen Vibas, an ELL teacher from Virginia who I met on Instagram. Kristen has been teaching since 2005. She shares how she went from aspiring actress to ELL teacher, and shares peeks into her classroom. You will love the tips and strategies she has developed on how to support multilingual students and how to teach reading to ELLs as much as I did. Both content te...

To us EL teachers, vocabulary pre-teaching is our daily bread, but I received a question from one of the content area teachers that made me think…what comes naturally to us, does not necessarily make immediate sense to our colleagues. I recently saw a post from a science teacher tasked with teaching English Newcomers and suggested a list of ideas, one being pre-teaching vocabulary. But, how do you...

Today’s episode is the answer to the question from one of my readers/listeners. What do I do with my newcomers the last three weeks of school? They are so frustrated and will speak no English this summer. How can I help them without frustration?  I wanted to share some activities that will take the frustration away because they all involve creativity, flow and connection. The rules for the end of...

I have been a big believer in the importance of social emotional learning for a long time. But, teaching amidst the pandemic for the last few years has really emphasized how vital it is for all students, particularly for English learners. There are five competencies to social emotional learning - self awareness, self management, social awareness, relationship skills, decision making skills. Each o...

In this episode, I am chatting with Beth Mailley. Beth is an ESL teacher in the Washington, DC area. She has been teaching for 23 years  with 11 years as a classroom teacher before becoming an ESL teacher. She has been in that role for the past 12 years and loves it. When she is not teaching, she is most likely reading, hanging out with family, or trying to convince herself to exercise. It was suc...

Planning for middle school EL students  is different from planning for just about any other class. You may have 20 students or just a few, and you will likely have a wide variety of different proficiency levels and students all at the same time. In my situation this school year, at least in middle school, I am teaching seventh and eighth grade students who span levels 1 through 4 on the WIDA langu...

So often we hear advice from educators who have been in the classroom, honing their craft for years. While their experience is valuable, I thought it would be refreshing to hear from an ESL teacher who is in the beginning stages of her career. Today, I chat with Kennedy Merriam, my student teacher this semester, who has been so open and creative during her time with me. She shares her own journey...

Teachers are often puzzled when they approach teaching grammar for a couple of reasons. Particularly if they are native english speakers, they often don’t feel like they know formal grammar rules very well. They just know when a phrase or sentence “sounds right.” The other big struggle for teachers is not knowing what order makes sense to teach grammar rules to their students.  But the bottom line...

We all know that learning a new language requires vocabulary instruction, but what is the best approach? Which words should we teach? Which words are the most important? And how can we help students retain the academic vocabulary we teach them? I address these questions in today’s episode. Language learning is not an overnight process, and vocabulary teaching is ongoing whether you work with exclu...

In today’s episode, I am chatting with Karen Emerson, who is a friend and a fellow ELL teacher in the town that I live in. She works with the youngest English learners - grades K-1. I met Karen through one of our monthly state EL meetings, and we hit it off right away. I could sense her passion for working with English learners and her creativity in approaching teaching, especially newcomers! What...

In today’s episode, I am chatting with my friend Carissa Ford about teaching speaking to our English learners. Speaking is such a personal aspect of language learning, and that is just one of the challenges our multilingual students face. Carissa and I dive into the best practices in teaching speaking from tasks to activities and lessons to projects. You’ll hear about the differences of teaching s...

In today’s episode,  I wanted to talk about the mental and emotional health of teachers and processing emotions in difficult times. We always seek information and want to better our knowledge of how to support our English learners - and all students. But I wanted to honor teachers as humans and not just as vessels of knowledge that are expected to show up and perform no matter what. The war in Ukr...

In today’s episode, I want to chat with you about a special group of students - those who have limited or interrupted formal education, otherwise known as SLIFE.  Chances are many of us have encountered a student from this group at least once. And with everything that is going on in the world right now, we are likely to see more and more need to help these children that have found themselves in di...

In today’s episode, I am chatting with my dear friend Susan Patterson about text engineering and how we all can help make content accessible to our English learners.  Susan is a district Multilingual/ELD Teacher on Special Assignment in California, which is a fancy title for doing a little bit of everything! But mostly, she develops professional learning around best practices for multilingual stud...

Can you relate to any or all of the next statements?  I am tasked with teaching ESL/ELL newcomers, but my district doesn’t have a curriculum for that.  I teach middle and high schoolers - and that is an added layer to the lack of curriculum .  I teach mixed level classes - where do I find ready made lessons? Being an ESL teacher usually involves a lot of moving parts.  In order to ensure our stude...

In today’s episode, I wanted to talk about the impact we make as ESL teachers. We know we are an important part of our English learners’ day, but what about reaching out to your colleagues and the community?  I will share two ways you can start establishing your name both in your school and in the community. You’ll learn how one simple email has turned into a ripple effect across the district, and...

In today’s episode, I am chatting with my dear friend Courtney Morgan about  collaboration between EL and general education teachers. This topic is so important, yet there are so many questions about what collaboration looks like, especially in districts that have a smaller EL program,  the steps both sides can take to help English learners, as well as the mindset shift that needs to take place. *...

Are we allowed to use the students’ first language in the classroom? If so, how much and for how long? I can translate all the materials, but where does English learning come in?  In this episode, I will be sharing tips not only for ESL teachers, but also for content area teachers who have English learners in the classroom. So if you think your colleagues will benefit, please share this episode wi...

Choice boards in the ESL classroom? The idea is great, but how can I implement it? I have a mixed-level classroom, or I work with ESL newcomers, or - insert your own situation.  In this episode, I  share some ideas on how you can actually implement choice boards in your ESL classroom, and feel like both you and your students are actually getting somewhere.  Here is what we talk about: What choice...

In this episode I answer the question I receive by far the most frequently - what to teach ESL/ELL newcomers first.  Here is what you will hear: A story about one of my students A fun method of how to teach introductions The most important topics to cover in those first days and weeks Make sure to subscribe to this podcast so you can find it easily and be informed when new episodes are released! F...

A lot of ESL/ELL teachers work with students in mixed proficiency level classes. It is a challenging task, and we always wonder if we are doing the right thing, if we are using the right strategy or the right scaffold.  In this episode, I share a bit about how I structure my mixed-level class, and the activities and resources you can use in yours as well.  Here is what you will hear: We will talk...

Welcome to episode 1 of The ESL Teaching Podcast! In this episode, I am sharing a little bit about myself - who I am, where I am coming from and why I decided to create Simply Ieva, a place where ESL teachers can find resources and support.  You'll hear: My linguistic background and education two huge events that brought me to where I'm now why I started Simply Ieva who I am serving  wha...

Welcome to The ESL Teaching Podcast, a place for K-12 teachers of English learners who are looking for simple and easy-to-implement ways to engage their students and for inspiration and empowerment in their day-to-day teaching. In this episode I am sharing about what you can expect from The ESL Teaching Podcast as well as information about the places where you can get  even more support! (see the...