Science Books for ELL

This article is fantastic for finding new resources that can be beneficial to ELL students in the classroom. This article provides teachers with many books to use in their classrooms. Each... See More

This article is fantastic for finding new resources that can be beneficial to ELL students in the classroom. This article provides teachers with many books to use in their classrooms. Each book is shown with its cover and a short description of what information they include. There is a range of topics including animals, nutrient, planets, technology and more. The author also recommended a grade level for each text. Although the grade level is helpful, the author stresses how important it is to consider a students interests and abilities when choosing a text. I really appreciate that a short description was included along with the ISBN. This makes is very easy to locate the books online. I wish the descriptions were slightly longer, but that is something I can research on my own if a book really catches my attention. This article can also make teaching science to ELL students easier, because it provides teachers with books for different topics. It also makes learning better for ELL students. They don't need to struggle with reading a text in English and can learn the same information in their preferred language. This will help me to ensure all students are learning the same information in a way that works best for them. It is important to note that this article does not mention anything on how to assess NGSS, but it does have some mention of the disciplinary core ideas. I believe that it would be more beneficial if all three dimensions were included for each book. I also would like to mention that many of these books were about animals. While the article did mention other topics, I think there could have been more books about space or weather. Overall, this was a very helpful article and something every teacher should look into!

Great Source to Find ELL Books for Science!

This article was great! It had so many sources teachers can use to aid in teaching ELL students science! This article listed several science books, and all of these books were either fully t... See More

This article was great! It had so many sources teachers can use to aid in teaching ELL students science! This article listed several science books, and all of these books were either fully translated to Spanish or included bilingual text (both English and Spanish sentences on each page). Seeing information in a first language is so helpful in terms of understanding and retention. These books covered a variety of topics. Topics that were focused on in this article included animals, human senses, planets, biology, general science, and technology, For each of the books included, the article listed exact ISBN numbers and prices of the book for purchase which could be very helpful to a teacher looking to order these books for their classes. Information for each book also included author, illustrator, total pages, features of the text, and recommended age group. The recommended age group is helpful for creating a baseline idea of what books to order for your class, however the author of the article makes a great point by saying "...the individual student’s Spanish reading ability, interest, and purpose should be the main criteria for determining the true level of each book." This point aligns with the fact that, in school, students should be leveled on WHERE they actually are, not simply what grade they are in. One other important and helpful feature of this article was the fact it pointed out that a lot of the recommended texts highlighted did NOT feature definite articles in them which can be very counterproductive for students attempting to read or learn the language. If a teacher was using one of these texts, they would have to supplement it with a lesson about definite articles. When reading this article, it is important to keep in mind that it was written in 2007, and some of the texts are even older than that. The article mentions that in the highlighted planets book that Pluto is still classified as a planet. We have to be careful of giving our students outdated and no longer accurate information. There is also no clear indication or mention of how to assess NGSS in terms of these books, however common curriculum topics are certainly covered in the focused upon books. That being said, this article gives teachers a lot of information and potential resources to use in the classroom to aid in teaching science to ELL students.