Top Ten Tips for Working With ESL/ELL Students

Teaching ESL./ELL students in your regular classroom can be a challenge. You feel great empathy for the children who enter your room, bewildered, but you have the rest of the class to think of, too.

TeachersFirst offers these Top Ten Tips for Teachers working with ESL/ELL students to help you find appropriate ways to differentiate instruction and make minor adjustments for the individual student and maximize the benefit of having these new students in the class.

If you already have a lesson planned, use TeachersFirst's Adapt-a-Strategy to help you adjust the lesson.

Click on the hint numbers above or the tip titles below to read each tip.

10. Become familiar with ESL websites.

  9. Have realistic expectations of your ESL student.

  8. Check your own attitude.

  7. Capitalize on holidays.

  6. Try to incorporate aspects of your student’s culture into your plans.

  5. Give the students extra grammar practice.

  4. Work on your language skills.

  3. Provide extra vocabulary help with every lesson.

  2. Learn about gestures from other cultures.

  1. Don’t assume students know how the American educational system works.