ESL, Language, and Literacy Education

What's This?

This guide lists resources and tools that will help you to conduct research and use materials relating to teaching English language learners, bilingual and multilingual education, and literacy and reading teaching.

What If I Need Help?

Contact Ash Lierman at lierman@rowan.edu !

We have many test prep books, flashcards, and practice exams for the Praxis Core and for various Praxis II examinations, both in the library and online! This guide lists them, plus some reliable and helpful free online resources for preparing:

These step-by-step tools from the library have blank lesson plan templates to download, and informational resources on how to complete each section as you move through the pages.

The best way to access scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles from Rowan University Libraries is through our databases. Databases are self-contained online tools that provide large searchable collections of articles and other materials. They may contain articles from a large variety of subjects, or focus on only one subject.

Below are some key databases specific to Education, as well as a few other tips and tools.

NOTE: You can search both these databases at once!

1. Open either ERIC or Education Source (it doesn't matter which).
2. Click the Choose Databases link above the search boxes at the top of the screen.
3. Ensure that both ERIC and Education Source (and any other databases you wish to include) are checked in the list.
4. Click OK. Now when you search, you will get results from both databases simultaneously.

If you don't see a Full Text link below the article citation, look for a button labeled "Get it!" This application will check for access to the full text of the article within the library's subscriptions.

If a message is displayed indicating that we don't have access, choose the Campbell Library Interlibrary Loan Request link to order the article through our Illiad online system.

You may prefer to use Google Scholar to find scholarly articles, and that's okay too! Just make sure that you can access the articles you find, by linking Google Scholar to Rowan University Libraries' resources.

1. From the Google Scholar home page, click the button in the top left with three horizontal lines: 
2. Select Settings.
3. In the Settings area, click the option in the left navigation that says Library links.
4. In the search box marked Show library access links for (choose up to five libraries):, search for Rowan University.
5. An option should appear below the search box that reads "Rowan University - FullText@RowanUniversity" with a check-box next to it. Click the check-box so it is selected.
6. Click Save in the lower right.

Now when you search in Google Scholar from this browser, your results should link directly to full text of each article, courtesy of Rowan University Libraries.

Also note that Library Search actually searches for books and journal articles simultaneously, unless you narrow your search to only books, via the menu options on the left side of the screen.

Most of the library's books are available as e-books, from in the library or elsewhere on and off campus. The print books we do have on ELL, language, and literacy education are located on the 4th floor, specifically in call numbers beginning with LC. General works related to language and literacy are also on the 4th floor, in the section beginning with P.

Dissertations may appear in your results in databases like ERIC or Education Source, but you won't be able to access their full text directly. They also won't always appear in results from the main Rowan search box.

Instead, search for dissertations in this database, which has PDF copies of nearly every dissertation submitted since 1997:

The resources on this page include both library and open web resources providing instructional media, materials, professional development resources, and more.

These step-by-step tools from the library have blank lesson plan templates to download, and informational resources on how to complete each section as you move through the pages.

Video library including real-world demonstrations of teaching practices in the classroom, as well as professional development video with teaching best practices, recommendations and ideas, and more. Search for a topic, or click the Filters button to browse lists of topics, by subject areas, or by grade level.

A good starting point is to search for your topic in our Newspaper Articles search. (This search can also be accessed from the top bar of an Advanced Search in the main search box on the Campbell Library webpage).

These searchable databases all include large amounts of newspaper articles that may be relevant to education.

Use these tools to organize and cite your sources, and to learn different citation styles.

These are software tools designed to help you save, organize, and cite the sources you find for your research.

Have an unusual citation problem to solve, or need to learn the mechanics of APA style? These tools provide more information and examples.