ELL Frontiers: Using Technology to Enhance Instruction for English Learners

Your Gps for improving Ells’ academic outcomes

This is not yesterday’s Ell classroom. Thanks to the Common Core and other rigorous new standards, it’s more challenging than eve

Heather Rubin is the Administrative Coordinator for the New York State Education Department’s Long Island Regional Bilingual Education Resource Network (LIRBERN) at Eastern Suffolk BOCES. She presents regularly at national and international conferences on topics related to instructional design and technology integration for English Learners and provides school districts with professional learning and guidance in order to support the needs of English Learners and their families. She has over 20 years of experience as a teacher, administrator, and education consultant. Her career as an ESOL professional began as a high school teacher for the NYC Board of Education and for Roosevelt UFSD in Long Island, NY. She has worked as an adjunct professor for Queens College, Molloy College Graduate School of Education, Hofstra University, and at Mercy College. Her combined expertise on ELs and the use of technology to support learning developed while working for the Board of Cooperative Educational Services of Nassau County (Nassau BOCES) where she was first an ESOL Program Specialist for the NYSED Bilingual/ESL Technical Assistance Center and then the Program Coordinator of Model Schools/Digital Age Teaching and Education. She holds a master of science in education degree for teaching English to speakers of other languages from Queens College, City University of New York, and a professional diploma in school district leadership from Fordham University. She co-authored ELL Frontiers Using Technology to Enhance Instruction for English Learners (2017), with Lisa Estrada and Dr. Andrea Honigsfeld, published by Corwin. She is also the co-contributor of Digital Age Teaching for English Learners in The Handbook of TESOL in K-12 (2019), a Wiley publication.

Lisa Estrada is recently retired from her position as the Supervisor of English as a New Language, Bilingual Education, and World Language Programs at Hicksville Public Schools, Hicksville, New York. She was also an adjunct professor in the Molloy College Clinically-Rich Intensive Teacher Institute, Rockville Centre, New York. Her educational experience and training includes over 30 years of ESL and Bilingual Education in K–12 settings. She was the recipient of the 2020 Outstanding Long Island ESOL Administrator of the Year Award presented by the Long Island Professional Committee on ESOL Education. She co-authored ELL Frontiers Using Technology to Enhance Instruction for English Learners (2017), with Heather Parris and Dr. Andrea Honigsfeld, published by Corwin. She is also the co-contributor of Digital Age Teaching for English Learners in The Handbook of TESOL in K-12 (2019), a Wiley publication.

Through her extensive knowledge of the education of ELs, she provides technical assistance and professional development on effective differentiated strategies, culturally responsive teaching, and technology integration for administrators and teachers working with English Learners. She conducts workshops and presents regularly at regional, national, and international conferences.

Andrea Honigsfeld, EdD, is professor in the School of Education at Molloy College, Rockville Centre, New York. Before entering the field of teacher education, she was an English-as-a-foreign-language teacher in Hungary (Grades 5–8 and adult) and an English-as-a-second-language teacher in New York City (Grades K–3 and adult). She also taught Hungarian at New York University. She was the recipient of a doctoral fellowship at St. John’s University, New York, where she conducted research on individualized instruction. She has published extensively on working with multilingual learners and teacher collaboration. She received a Fulbright Award to lecture in Iceland in the fall of 2002. In the past 22 years, she has been presenting at conferences across the United States, China, Denmark, Japan, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates.

 She coauthored Differentiated Instruction for At-Risk Students (2009) and coedited the five-volume Breaking the Mold of Education series (2010–2013), published by Rowman and Littlefield. She is also the coauthor of Core Instructional Routines: Go-To Structures for Effective Literacy Teaching, K–5 and 6–12 (2014), Growing Language and Literacy (K-8 and 6-12, 2019, 2024 respectively) published by Heinemann. With Maria G. Dove, she coedited Coteaching and Other Collaborative Practices in the EFL/ESL Classroom: Rationale, Research, Reflections, and Recommendations (2012), Co-Teaching for English Learners: Evidence-Based Practices and Research-Informed Outcomes (2020), Portraits of Collaboration: Educators Working Together to Support Multilingual Learners (2022), and coauthored Collaboration and Co-Teaching: Strategies for English Learners (2010), Common Core for the Not-So-Common Learner, Grades K–5: English Language Arts Strategies (2013), Common Core for the Not-So-Common Learner, Grades 6–12: English Language Arts Strategies (2013), Beyond Core Expectations: A Schoolwide Framework for Serving the Not-So-Common Learner (2014), Collaboration and Co-Teaching: A Leader’s Guide (2015), Co-Teaching for English Learners: A Guide to Collaborative Planning, Instruction, Assessment, and Reflection (2018), Collaborating for English Learners: A Foundational Guide to Integrated Practices (2019), and Co-Planning: 5 Essential Practices to Integrate Curriculum and Instruction for English Learners (2022). She is a contributing author of Breaking Down the Wall: Essential Shifts for English Learner Success (2020), From Equity Insights to Action (2022), Digital-Age Teaching for English Learners (2022), Collaboration and Co-Teaching for Dual Language Learners: Transforming Programs for Multilingualism and Equity (2023), Breaking Down the Monolingual Wall: Essential Shifts for Multilingual Learners’ Success (2024), Collaboration for Multilingual Learners With Exceptionalities: We Share the Students (2024), Collaborative Assessment for Multilingual Learners and Teachers: Pathways to Partnerships (2025), and  Nine Dimensions of Scaffolding for Multilingual Learners (2026). Ten of her Corwin books are bestsellers.