ESL/EFL/ELL weekly – A weekly feature pulls together eight years of ongoing ESL/EFL/Ell resources, including new classroom strategies on scaffolding, gamifying vocabulary, and multilingual-focused curriculum design, plus guidance for language department leaders and reading lists f
Eight years ago. this regular feature started as a simple promise: share a handful of posts and resources from around the web for people teaching ESL. EFL. and ELL—or anyone focused on language learning in general. Every week since. it’s kept that rhythm. and this week’s selection leans hard into classroom-ready support. from scaffolding writing to reshaping curriculum for multilingual students.
The week begins with a classroom tool from Edutopia: “Sentence-Level Scaffolds That Foster English Learners’ Independence and Growth.” It’s the kind of approach that fits neatly into existing curated lists. with the feature adding it to two earlier collections—“The Best Scaffolded Writing Frames For Students” and “The Best Resources On Providing Scaffolds To Students.”.
Vocabulary games also make an appearance, with “3 Zero-Tech Ways to Gamify Vocabulary” from Helping Multilingual Learners Thrive. The theme continues in a separate piece tied to curriculum design: “Multilingualism Is a Strength. Why Isn’t Curriculum Designed That Way?” from The 74.
For students who need something concrete to start from. the feature points readers toward a set of videos—five in total—designed for ELL students to watch and then talk or write about what they saw. It doesn’t name the videos in the text provided. but it is clear about the intended routine: watch first. then respond through conversation and writing.
Professional development shows up in the list as well. “DIY Master’s in Second Language Teaching: A Reading List” comes from The Backseat Linguist. offering a structured path for educators building toward deeper expertise without waiting for a traditional route. Another training-focused entry—“Building an MTSS That Actually Works for Multilingual Learners”—arrives from the Collaborative for Inclusive Education. positioning support systems as something that must match multilingual needs.
For leaders rather than classroom teachers, there’s guidance aimed at heads of world languages departments: “The 17 Most Common Mistakes Made by Heads of World Languages Departments” from The Language Gym.
The feature also directs readers back to its broader ecosystem: it invites attention to “Best lists on teaching ELLs,” “A Collection Of My Best Resources On Teaching English Language Learners,” and its latest book, “The ELL Teacher’s Toolbox 2.0.”
Taken together, the picks sketch a clear through-line—scaffolded writing, vocabulary engagement, multilingual-centered curriculum questions, and systems-level support—while still speaking to different roles, from students watching videos to administrators thinking about departmental leadership.
ESL EFL ELL language learners scaffolding vocabulary multilingual curriculum MTSS second language teaching language department leadership
So are they saying teachers don’t know how to scaffold now? lol
I skimmed but it sounds like just more videos for ELL kids to watch and then write. Like… cool, but where’s the actual curriculum in plain English?
Wait, this is about ELL resources for like reading lists and “gamifying vocabulary”? I thought MTSS was like health stuff? Maybe I’m mixing it up, but it feels like a lot of buzzwords for something simple.
Eight years of “around the web” picks… so basically teachers just keep getting the same links repackaged? I do like the idea of sentence-level scaffolds though. But if they don’t even name the videos, how are new teachers supposed to use it right away?