Take Aways from Teacher Book Study - EL Excellence Every Day

So far these are the take-aways I have from the first section of the book study:

1. The need to differentiate teaching is real in any classroom, whether or not we have English Learners (ELs) in our class.
2. Collaborative conversations benefit everyone every day.
3. ELs need teachers who understand the assets multilingual students bring to their learning and who can build on ELs linguistic, cultural, and academic strengths.
4. One easy and essential way to value students' diverse backgrounds is to pronounce students' names the say way their families pronounce their names.  This is critically important as our names are our identities.  We create a disconnect between family and home and school when we mispronounce a student's name. 
5. Seek to understand culture beyond heroes and holidays.
6. Our diverse students'  knowledge and linguistic abilities are assets that should be integrated into how and what we teach.  
7. Learn what students know and can do in their primary languages(s).
8. Structure collaborative conversations daily in your teaching routines that invite not one right answer but diverse perspectives about texts students read and concepts you teach.
9. With genuine interests in learning the language, without putting students on the spot, create opportunities for ELs to teach words or phrases in their language to you and.or to peers.  
10. Choose enabling texts for your classroom library and teaching.
11. Students rise or fall to the level of teacher expectations.
12. Be specific about your goals for student learning.