If you are an educator of English learners (ELs) who is instructing your students virtually, you are probably having difficulty successfully engaging them. This is especially true if you have newcomers in your class. For online learning in virtual classrooms, we need to revisit and modify tried-and-true strategies that we use to educate ELs when we see them in person in a brick-and-mortar building.

One challenge that I’m hearing about is that many classroom teachers are recording their lessons, and students view these lessons when they are able. ELs, especially newcomers, may not be able to understand a lesson taught this way. Beginning ELs need to have live lessons in real time with teachers every day. The also need an occasion to practice oral English language acquisition daily. Planning these lessons might be an overwhelming task for classroom teachers, so collaboration with ESL educators is crucial.

Here are six basic tenets for teaching ELs that translate well to virtual learning. Continue reading →