Help! My Kids Don't All Speak English: How to Set Up a Language Workshop in Your Linguistically Diverse Classroom

Today, more nonnative speakers are entering classrooms than ever before. Some may be encountering English for the first time; some may understand written or spoken English but have difficulty communicating in it; and others may be well on their way to fluency but need specific guidance. To meet these students' needs while addressing the needs of those who already speak English you'll have to think about your teaching differently. Help! My Kids Don't All Speak English can guide you. Help! My Kids Don't All Speak English offers an exciting new take on English language instruction--the language workshop. Language workshop focuses on the needs of every child, allowing you the flexibility to scaffold instruction by modeling language, posing problems and ideas that expand kids' skills, and teaching specific thinking strategies. Students will find the guidance and opportunity necessary for acquiring language, learn discussion structures, and think through ideas and texts. Nancy Akhavan details how to make language workshop happen, sharing frameworks and strategies that help children: - share ideas, decisions, and understandings orally and in writing- think critically by analyzing, synthesizing, and comparing texts- acquire and apply the conventions of English- gain language skills through authentic literacy lessons.