Book Lists - A World of Language Learners

Decodable Books for MLs

October 11, 2026 aworldoflanguagelearners Comments 0 Comment

Decodable Books for MLs: The Importance of Decoding with Meaning What are Decodables? Decodables are books or passages that have controlled text. The words are simple to decode based on phonics skills that students have learned. They typically follow a sequence of skill progression such as consonants and short vowels, blends and digraphs, long vowels, affixes. MLs benefit from using decodables because they are able to successfully sound out most of the words they are reading independently. This gives…

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Best Back To School Books For Multilingual Learners

August 23, 2026 aworldoflanguagelearners Comments 3 comments

The beginning of the school year is a great time to read back to school books, including those about starting at a new school, culture, respect, names, and identity. Diverse back to school books that feature a range of characters allow students to see their own and other cultures represented. It is especially important for MLs to read and listen to books where they see characters similar to themselves represented. Here are some diverse back-to-school books to use for a…

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Powerful Immigrant Civil Rights Books over pictures of books

Powerful Immigrant Civil Rights Books for MLs

January 19, 2026 aworldoflanguagelearners Comments 0 Comment

Immigrants have, and continue to make a lasting impact on the struggle for civil rights in the United States. Now more than ever is the time to learn their stories and support their advocacy. Discover immigrant civil rights books, including biographies and picture books that tell the stories of how American immigrants have fought for civil rights. These books about immigrant civil rights will help introduce MLs and all students to the important contributions of these individuals. Disclosure: This post…

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Summer Books

June 23, 2025 aworldoflanguagelearners Comments 0 Comment

Get kids excited about reading during the summer with these fun summer-themed fiction and nonfiction books. Students will enjoy reading about the ocean, camping, and summer traditions. Many of the characters come from immigrant families or have family members that live in other countries. For more ideas about helping children read over the summer check out my Summer Reading Tips for ELLs. Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission if you click on…

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Diverse Spring Books for MLs

March 31, 2025 aworldoflanguagelearners Comments 0 Comment

Spring is a great time to read books about the environment, animal and plant life cycles, and other outdoor topics. For English Language Learners (along with all students), it is important to read books with characters from diverse backgrounds. Try to integrate characters with similar backgrounds as the students you work with so that they can see kids that are similar to themselves in the books that they are reading and listening to. Here is a list of spring books…

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Gender Identity Books

January 26, 2025 aworldoflanguagelearners Comments 0 Comment

Introduce your students to a range of gender identities using picture books. Help them learn about different pronouns and how to use them. There are also books that show transgender and nonbinary kids and adults as the main characters. This set of gender identity picture books can be used throughout the year. They can help children see themselves and learn about the gender diversity around them. You can model correct pronoun usage as you are reading any picture book. One…

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Martin Luther King Jr. Books for MLs

January 19, 2025 aworldoflanguagelearners Comments 0 Comment

Martin Luther King Jr. was a civil rights leader, political activist, and minister who lived during the mid 20th century. Picture books are one of the best ways to introduce this important historical figure to multilingual learners, along with all students. Picture books have colorful illustrations that help students to build vocabulary. For older learners, you can then move on to more complex texts and video information. The picture books will help to build the student’s background knowledge about King….

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Ten Fall Books for MLs

September 22, 2024 aworldoflanguagelearners Comments 2 comments

Here is a collection of books for read-alouds, text sets, and mentor texts to use during the fall season. These books feature diverse characters and have vivid illustrations. Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission if you click on an Amazon link and make a purchase. This does not cost you any extra money. Autumn Story Books Hiking Day– Follow a family as they hike up Hickory Hill and reach the summit. They see…

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Diverse Student Name Books

September 1, 2024 aworldoflanguagelearners Comments 0 Comment

You can use student name books to help explain to students the importance of correctly saying the names of their classmates. Here is a list of student name books from a diverse selection of authors. They are great at back-to-school time or anytime during the year when a new student enters the class. For MLs, it can be especially frustrating when a teacher or classmates do not pronounce their name correctly. Taking some time at the beginning of the year…

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Teaching About World Holidays in School

November 20, 2022 aworldoflanguagelearners Comments 0 Comment

There are two ways to think about holidays in public school. One is that you do not include any holidays in school activities. The other is to teach students about a range of different holiday celebrations from around the world throughout the school year. Try not to fall into the trap of only talking about holidays in December. This, by default, ends up centering Christmas and leaves out all of the important holiday celebrations from most other religions. Teaching about…

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