I am beyond excited about the publishing of my first book! This book is truly a labor of love and comes from my heart. 

And I'm honored to have co-authored it with Dr. Melinda Miller. She and I compliment one another beautifully. 

As I think back on my why, why did I write this book, I'm taken back to my own years in elementary school as an English learner. Even though school came very naturally to me, reading didn't. Don't get me wrong. I could decode like it was anyone's business. But I didn't have a desire or stamina for reading. One year, I had an awesome reading teacher who let us read whatever we wanted during independent reading block. AND we routinely had independent reading time. The problem was that I wasn't connecting with books. Instead, I found myself hiding behind the pages and peering over to wonder what my classmates were doing. I was a good student. Straight As. A teacher's pet for sure! I wanted to please so I mimicked everyone else. But deep inside I just wanted to figure out why everyone else was actually reading. 

The funny thing is that my experiences as an EL didn't magically make me understand how to teach ELs reading and writing. Sure, I could empathize and I had my own background knowledge to lean on, but as a teacher, I had to seek out a ton of professional learning, books, and PD on the topic before I felt like I was really making progress. 

I hope you find what you're looking for in this book. I hope you see yourself as a teacher, leader, and role model. I hope it stirs up something inside of you and creates a new passion and desire for serving ELs. 

10 Reasons Why YOU Should Read Reading & Writing With English Learners;
1. You want to help English learners become stronger readers. 
2. You want to help ELs love writing. 
3. You want to be a better reading teacher for your students.
4. You want to strengthen your skills as a writing teacher.
5. You want to increase ELs' language and literacy. 
6. You want to learn more about a balanced literacy approach. 
7. You want to find out how to accommodate reading and writing instruction to support ELs.
8. You want ELs to succeed and feel they belong in grade level ELA classrooms.
9. You want to provide ELs with the best reading and writing support they can have. 
10. You want to be equipped to serve ELs in reading and writing workshop.