In early March, Irma De La Guardia, a Dallas ISD teacher at Harry C. Withers Elementary School, was named the National Association of Bilingual Educators’ 2015 Teacher of the Year.
Given De La Guardia’s noted skill at teaching, The Hub asked her what five tips she would give a new bilingual teacher. She responded:
1. Engage all students with multiple response strategies: Some of my favorites are white boards, think, pair, share and choral response.
2. Stay in the language of instruction: Use visuals and anchor charts to help students in their second language. Post your anchor charts in e-classroom.
3. Repeat the lesson objective frequently to assure that all students know what they learning.
4. During guided practice, include activities where students can collaborate, either in teams or in pairs to provide opportunities to use oral language.
5. Always include a writing component in every lesson.
Watch De La Guardia talk about these tips and more in the above video.
