Dr. Shelley Fairbairn, Assistant Professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning, recently celebrated the culmination of a 2-year project when Differentiated Instruction and Assessment of English Language Learners: A Guide for K-12 Teachers was published. This cutting-edge book was co-authored with Stephaney Jones-Vo, M.A. Jones-Vo is ESL/Diversity Consultant at Heartland Area Education Agency and former adjunct instructor of English as a Second Language (ESL) Methods at Drake.
Fairbairn and Jones-Vo taught ESL together in the Urbandale Community School District years ago and regularly conduct professional development workshops and conference presentations focused on the effective teaching and assessment of English Language Learners (ELLs). The book was inspired by numerous teacher requests for guidance regarding how to differentiate for students at different levels of English language proficiency and features a poster of level-specific instructional and assessment strategies that teachers can post in their classrooms.
In the forward to the book, Dr. Tim Boals, a national leader in the field of ESL education and Director of the WIDA Consortium, which serves 23 states in the areas of ELL teaching, assessment, professional development, and research, wrote that:
This guide is packed with ideas for purposeful and differentiated language instruction and assessment that can be applied throughout most content classrooms. It provides a guide for any teacher who is eager to assure that students are learning deeply. I predict this text will be as popular with teachers already facing the daily challenges of educating ELLs as it will be in university teacher pre-service programs. As teachers read it and make use of the strategies, they will begin to share the excitement I felt at finally seeing a guide that addresses language differentiation for ELLs.
Fairbairn commented that “This book and poster are a labor of love to the many educators who serve ELLs. It is our hope that the guidance that we provide will enhance the teaching and assessment of ELLs across the nation.â€
For more information and to order a copy, go to www.caslonpublishing.com.