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

Nancy Akhavan provides the inspiration, theory, and practical know-how that teachers need to support language development within a workshop setting. By creating structures that capture time for rich talk and student thinking, she brings English learners into full participation in the classroom community.
Laurie Pessah, Teachers College Reading and Writing Project

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 guidance in specific language skills. To meet these students' needs while addressing the many, varied needs of those who already speak English as their primary language you'll have to think about your teaching differently. Help My Kids Don't All Speak English can help.

Help My Kids Don't All Speak English offers an exciting new take on English language instructionthe language workshop. Language workshop focuses on the specific language needs of every child, allowing you the flexibility to scaffold instruction by modeling specific uses of language, posing problems and ideas that expand kids' language skills, and teaching specific thinking strategies. Students will find the guidance and opportunity necessary for acquiring language, learn the structures of discussion and debate, and think through ideas and texts. Nancy Akhavan details how to make language workshop happen in your classroom, 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.

Warm, supportive, and complete with classroom-tested units of study, example workshop lessons, ready-to-use graphic organizers, and a rich booklist designed specifically for use with language workshop, Nancy Akhavan's Help My Kids Don't All Speak English is going to make a difference to every member of your classroom.

Author: Nancy Akhavan
Publisher: Heinemann Educational Books
Published: 01/01/2006
Pages: 224
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.18lbs
Size: 11.08h x 8.44w x 0.52d
ISBN: 9780325007984

About the Author

Nancy Akhavan is Assistant Professor in the department of Educational Research and Administration at California State University, Fresno. Previously, she was Assistant Superintendent of School Leadership for Middle Schools in Fresno Unified School District, a large urban district in California's Central Valley. She has worked as a district staff developer, principal, elementary school bilingual teacher, bilingual resource teacher, and professional development coordinator for over twenty years. Dr. Akhavan is passionate about providing a high quality education for all children through authentic, purposeful instruction. She has provided staff development training to teachers grades K-12 on topics as literacy, vocabulary development, writing, English Language Development, standards based instruction, coaching and leadership. She also has provided training to teacher leaders and administrators in systems and culture change, school reform, and classroom based professional development. In addition to her work in classrooms and schools, she has written a number of professional books, including the Heinemann titles Teaching Reading in a Title I School, K-3; Teaching Writing in a Title I School, K-3; Help! All My Students Don't Speak English: How to Set Up a Language Workshop in Your Linguistically Diverse Classroom; and How to Align Literacy Instruction, Assessment, and Standards and Achieve Results You Never Dreamed Possible. Nancy Akhavan is Heinemann Professional Development provider.

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