Today was the first day of AZELLA testing for my 7th grade introduction level English Language Development class. They were very nervous during the first subtest (Listening), and then we had quite a bit of time to relax. It wasn’t
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Planning Blind: The Limitations of Test Scores
Warning: Grumpy face. You’ve run the race, and you need to start strategizing how you will train for the next one. But you won’t know the results of the race for months. Innovation can be exhilarating… as well as exhausting,
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A Holiday Wish List for ELD Equity
It’s that time of year when the child within us develops a dreamy, far-off look, and her eyes begin to gleam. Sugar plums? A Red Ryder BB gun? A new laptop? A roof rack and two kayaks? Creating a holiday
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Reality Check for This Here Teacher
Are we in a post-truth society? Are we hopelessly floating in our bubbles of alternative facts and biased narratives? Or can reasoning and evidence prevail? The truth is that sometimes, one doesn’t even need the facts to be “alternative” to
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Reality Check for English Language Learners
Snippets of surreptitious conversational Spanish dart around the classroom amid scattered outbursts of giggles. I review the color-coded highlighting of sentence parts in our newest sentence formula involving superlative adjectives, pointing to the laminated neon cards magneted to the
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