As 2025 draws to a close, I find myself filled with gratitude. I’m grateful for the learners who trusted the process, the educators who implemented my textbook with dedication, and the partners who continue to believe in the mission of I Want to Learn English. This year was more than a collection of lesson plans or presentation slides; it was a powerful reminder of what happens when we center English learners in our teaching, our advocacy, and our community. Together, something meaningful was built, and I want to take a moment to celebrate that with you. I do so with humility, as there are so many different outcomes that could have befallen these efforts.
It goes without saying that there are tons of educational options out there. Some come with razzle-dazzle, some with obligatory frameworks. Educators often have to navigate a minefield of mandates in order to teach English learners the linguistic fundamentals they truly need without upsetting the curricula overlords that may have other plans for classroom time. We are all aware of this. Painfully so. However, some have picked up the mantle of “pushing forward” rather than pushing back, because teaching MLs comes with the unspoken understanding of compromise. It is just the way the educator world works. And for that, for those who champion our students, for those who advocate by teaching (and holding an I Want To Learn English textbook in their hands), it isn’t enough to simply say thank you. I give you a standing ovation. Next year, we will keep going.
Launching Writing Journey for Beginners: A Textbook Born in the Classroom
Perhaps the most exciting milestone of 2025 was the release of Writing Journey for Beginners, a textbook designed for adult and adolescent English learners who are just starting to put their thoughts into words in a new language. This book didn’t begin as a product. It began as a promise: to make writing accessible, empowering, and rooted in real classroom practice. Each unit builds upon foundational skills like sentence structure, punctuation, and subject-verb agreement, while gradually introducing students to more complex forms of writing like summaries, narrative structure, and opinion paragraphs.
I find the self-assessment tools built into each section to be the most impactful feature. These allow learners to track their growth, reflect on their progress, and take ownership of their learning journey. The response has been overwhelming. Teachers from across the country have shared how the book’s clear structure and culturally relevant activities have engaged their students in new and unexpected ways. And since I designed it to be malleable, teachers really appreciate its usefulness in supplementing their standard curriculum.
Working with English learners presents challenges that mainstream textbooks simply don’t anticipate. At least, they don’t address the challenges realistically. This is why Writing Journey for Beginners is quickly becoming a “go-to” for teachers and finding its way into resource libraries. When opportunities present themselves that school and district-mandated curricula do not realistically cover, having this textbook to supplement personalized learning times has been a true lifeline for many. Perhaps it’s the video components conveniently embedded in the pages throughout, in the form of QR codes, that dot crucial activities for students to reference in their personal studies. But I happen to know that teachers as well as students are finding those videos produced in such a way that they keep learners engaged (with a hint of razzle-dazzle of its own).
Presenting at Conferences in 2025: Centering Learners, Changing Literacy
In the spring, I had the honor of presenting at the MAACCE conference here in Maryland. My session (like others throughout the year) focused on the relevance and impact of phonics on adolescent and adult English learners. Drawing on Barbara Birch’s literacy framework and over a decade of classroom research, I continue to argue that phonics isn’t just a tool for decoding, but a bridge to writing. When learners master sound-symbol relationships, they build confidence not just in reading but in expressing themselves through writing. And when writing routines are scaffolded and contextualized, we begin to see students do more than fill in the blanks. We see them tell stories, express opinions, and advocate for themselves. There is a moment from a conference that stays with me in which a teacher from a small adult school shared something special. She said that after introducing phonics-integrated writing tasks, one of her students wrote, “Now I can hear the words before I write them in my head.” That kind of reflection is more than rewarding: it’s validation. Phonics works for groups of beginners at all ages, period.
Other conferences I presented at were MIDTESOL in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and SETESOL in Little Rock, Arkansas. Connecting with educators from different parts of the country is not only warm, but it is also exhilarating. Sharing what I’ve learned over the decades with dedicated teachers who genuinely want to improve their ESL toolbox makes these trips worthwhile. I admit I went to fewer conferences this year than last year, but I am a firm believer in quality over quantity when it comes to conferences. It boils down to what I can contribute and what theme best resonates with me in my own quest to improve as an instructor. This is a never-ending quest to refine strategies, and that means listening to others and collaborating with as many people as possible.
The Writing Assessment Tool
Of course, the real heart of IWTLE’s work isn’t at conferences or in textbooks, it’s in the classroom. One thing I can say with fervent conviction is that (like many ESL teachers), commercial assessment tools are too expensive, time-consuming, and not utilized enough in instruction. This is not a deliberate act. It is largely because the data produced by most of the assessment tools I’ve used is either too general or provided too late in the instruction process. For example, in public schools where WIDA is used to provide proficiency data, the K-12 system gives that information toward the end of the school year. It shows how students progress over time, but it does little to help the student’s teacher in the following school year. It gives us a general “whereabouts” of the students’ language skills, but many times I find the scores never tell the whole story since a quarter of a calendar year goes by before the teacher even sees that student. And for adolescents, a lot can happen in 4 months (developmentally speaking).
This is why I piloted more interactive writing routines in my classroom. I shared dictation, sentence expansion, and summarizing short narratives. These weren’t just exercises in grammar; they were invitations for students to engage deeply with language and meaning. Every sentence became a small act of agency. Every comma and capital letter, a declaration of belonging in the English-speaking world. However, the lower the student’s proficiency level, the more challenging these tasks are. And once students are in the 1.0-2.0 proficiency level range, using the rubric to gauge their language skills doesn’t really tell the whole story. The WIDA Can-Do descriptors offer a richly detailed picture of an English learner’s language skills across listening, speaking, reading, and writing, giving ESL educators a far more nuanced linguistic grasp than generic language proficiency models; however, this precision diminishes at the lower proficiency tiers, where the descriptors become notably vaguer.
Frustrated by existing frameworks, which offer detailed guidance at higher proficiency levels but become nebulous and undifferentiated at the entering and emerging stages, I explored the diagnostic power of student writing. Analyzing what beginner English learners produce reveals far deeper insights into their literacy and linguistic competence than standardized descriptors alone can provide. This realization led me to develop a specialized writing assessment tool designed exclusively for beginner-level English learners. Through an iterative process informed by classroom data and alignment with language development standards (as well as studying the language used by various assessment tools), I created a resource that stands apart from conventional assessments. Its key strength lies in precisely differentiating true novices from those nearing Level 2 (Emerging) proficiency—a critical distinction for educators working with beginners. The tool includes a tiered grid that subdivides the beginner continuum, offering clear benchmarks for linguistic complexity, vocabulary, language control, and organization. The rubric is analytically robust for reliable distinctions yet streamlined and worded for quick, practical classroom use. In the spirit of supporting the ESL community, I offer this assessment tool completely free of charge to any educator wishing to use or adapt it.
Click HERE to view and download the assessment.
What’s Next in 2026?
Looking ahead, IWTLE has several exciting initiatives underway. A second-level writing textbook is currently in development, designed to build directly on the foundational skills introduced in Writing Journey for Beginners while incorporating phonics for intermediate-level students and tasks that promote critical thinking. In 2026, I am also expanding my professional development offerings with a range of on-site training and virtual workshops centered on evidence-based literacy strategies, systematic phonics integration, and culturally responsive pedagogy. If you would like to explore scheduling a session for your school or program, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I welcome the opportunity to collaborate.
If you have implemented “Writing Journey for Beginners” or the “I Want To Learn English” textbook this year, I would greatly appreciate hearing about your experiences. For those new to IWTLE, this is an ideal moment to discover our resources. Whether you are a classroom teacher, tutor, or program leader, iwtle.com provides practical tools to support your English learners’ writing development.
Thank you for being part of this dedicated community of educators committed to the belief that writing is far more than a skill. It is a vital pathway to belonging, agency, and voice. Here’s to the journey ahead.
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