EL Excellence Every Day: The Flip-to Guide for Differentiating Academic Literacy

This book is a wise investment in your teaching craft. I work with ELs in our local juvenile hall, jail and expelled students school. We get a lot of trainings that leave you with good feelings but still stuck the same classroom routines and activities. Tonya Ward Singer, however, gave a training that left us with a lot of ready-to-use activities. I’ve been using what I learned there ever since, so I thought I would buy her book. This book sure lived up to the amazing training! It was as useful, digestible, and well organized. Since getting it, I have been flipping through the tabs for reference and also for weekly lesson prep. Unlike other powerhouse books, the amount of amazing material is not over overwhelming because it’s in small, bite-size bits. My favorite part is about a Mindset called “Value English Learner’s Assets.” This idea is always mentioned in seminars but often in a token manner. Ward Singer really gets in the weeds with informed advice that shows you she doesn’t just pay lip service to this issue. She has a section called Actions to Live the Mindset which tells us how to “walk this talk.” For example, she advises teachers to pay special mind to pronouncing names correctly. I can attest to the efficacy of paying attention to details like this. There’s an almost confused delight that comes into a students’ face when you get a name like Xochitl (SOH-cheel) or Ivan (ee-VAHN) right, or even if you just ask how to say it and pay attention to the answer. So much negative redirection can be preempted by with moves like this. “Valuing non-standard English dialects” is another amazing action suggestion. I will often diagram sentences in non-standard English to show that they are still following a grammar structure. I have witnessed the affective obstacles to learning start melting away. I have never seen this advice about names and non-standard dialects in black and white advice and I’m so glad Ms. Ward Singer, whose reputation precedes her, is preaching this gospel. Thank you for these important insights and go-to activities!

I am an EL teacher who works with a variety of students, many of whom have experienced trauma, come from low income households or are SLIFEs. I am also responsible within our school's model for presenting professional learning for staff. I co-teach with 3 grade level classroom teachers all of whom find this book a PRACTICAL and EFFICIENT resource. This is a book ALL teachers should have. It is thoughtfully written and very practitioner oriented. This is a book that will help all teachers QUICKLY ACCESS tools they need to help EL learners access content curricula, but also answer administrator questions regarding their practice in evaluations. It's aligned with Cultural Proficiency, SIOP and Common Core, and offers so much, all in a convenient guide. I can not stress this book enough to other teachers. Singer also collaborated with some other big names in education, including Zaretta Hammond and Jennifer Serravallo.

Easy to read and understand, very helpful

The ebook does not reflect the actual book in regards to the color. When using it in a classroom setting teacher says "look st the yellow area" and alI I see is grey.

If you teach MLL kids buy this book! It has so many useful strategies to help MLL kids.

I am an ELL teacher and Instructional Coach. This book is my go-to resource for easy to use strategies that support all students. I love that there are intentional structures that value students voice and culture, as well as provide support for students feeling successful at every step of their development. There are suggestions for how to adjust scaffolding based on student behaviors (when to increase scaffolding when students need more support and when to pull it away when students demonstrate readiness). I will be using these strategies to support Professional Learning K-12 in our District. If you are a new teacher, a principal who needs to start or re-up the conversation with your staff around scaffolding, cultural responsivess, the value of collaborative conversations and engagement, or maybe you are a veteran teacher that wants to "put it all together" for your students...THIS IS YOUR BIBLE!

This is a fantastic resource for anyone who teaches English language learners at any level. It is full of graphic organizers, sentence frames, and useful tips for scaffolding and differentiation. To be sure, this is one of the most useful and practical books I've purchased in the field of English language studies. You will not be disappointed! Thank you for creating this wonderful resource!

This has been an awesome tool, not only as an EL teacher but also for supporting classroom teachers!