The first step to setting your English Language Learners up for success is your actual classroom set up! Plastering those store-bought generic posters isn’t going to do the trick. C’mon, 90% of the time those just collect dust without any students looking at them! One thing I suggest is having a timeline of important events. I have done this in a variety of ways. You can build it as you go and discuss each unit. We all have the best of intentions at the beginning of the school year, right? Well any time I used this method I ended up rocking out Civil War and Reconstruction. Unfortunately, my content spanned until The War on Terrorism. If you do this, you can make a spare set of the timeline cards to use as a station activity! I ended up using the partial set as a Civil War station the next year! I prefer the way I made a time line for 2015-2016. I made my entire classroom the timeline and used picture cards with labels that I had purchased on Teachers Pay Teachers. It is actually very helpful for ELLs to have a preview of material so I would suggest … Continue reading Setting Up Your Social Studies Space with English Language Learners in Mind