English language instruction continues to be a hot topic in the news -- from achievement gaps to funding and professional development for teachers. These resources focus on supporting students' cultural language and identity as they work to learn a second language.

For a rich description of a classroom and curriculum that supports English language learners, read the Language Arts article "'Seeing the Possibilities': Learning from, with, and about Multilingual Classroom Communities" (E), which examines the lives of four multilingual students, their classmates, and teacher as they use a range of systems to learn from, with, and about one another and their surrounding social worlds.

The Voices from the Middle article "Preserving the Cultural Identity of the English Language Learner" (M) urges teachers to celebrate the multiple cultures and languages in their classrooms and offers advice, examples, and resources for maintaining students' cultural identities while they work to learn the English language.

Looking for ways to address sentence construction with English language learners? The English Journal article "Phrase and Clause Grammar Tactics for the ESL/ELL Writing Classroom" (S) shows how sentence-combining activities can lead to comprehension of different types of phrases and clauses as well as improved student writing.

"Toward a Writing Pedagogy of Shuttling between Languages: Learning from Multilingual Writers" (C) from College English argues that instruction must see the first language and culture as a resource, not a problem, and argues that teachers must seek practices that accommodate diverse literacy traditions -- rather than keep them divided and separate.

Check out the Elementary English Language Learner and Secondary English Language Learners Teaching Resource Collections for additional resources, including articles and lesson plans.

NOTE: Free access to journal articles mentioned in this INBOX is provided for 21 days. After this free access period expires, articles are available to journal subscribers only. This Inbox Idea was published 4-1-08.

Initials in annotations indicate academic level of the resource (E=Elementary, M=Middle, S=Secondary, C=College, TE=Teacher Education, G=General).

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