Community Q and A

ELL levels are the language proficiency levels. Although the level numbers and names may vary from state to state, there is generally consistency in their descriptors. For example, the state of California uses proficiency levels 1 to 4 to describe where their English learners are at in their language development. Level 1 is Beginning, Level 2 is Emerging, Level 3 is Expanding, and Level 4 is Bridging. States using WIDA standards use proficiency levels 1-6: Entering, Beginning, Developing, Expanding, Bridging, and Reaching. Lower levels indicate beginner-level students while the higher levels indicate more advanced English learners.  

Note: What is most important to look at as an educator is the language proficiency descriptors for each level. These describe what English language skills these students can demonstrate and those skills that need to be developed.

Start by building trust through an open dialogue with students and families about their cultural backgrounds. Start conversations with phrases like 'Help me understand your traditions' or 'Tell me about how things are done in your culture.' This creates space for you to share information about American school culture in return. When speaking with families, use the same approach: 'Help me understand more about your child.' This opens a respectful pathway to discuss school matters while honoring their cultural perspectives.

Another way to explore your students’ cultural traditions is to have theme-based learning units that develop language and culture simultaneously. Here are a few examples:  

• "Explore my school": Introduce students to locations in a school, personnel, extracurricular activities, classes, events, holidays, etc. 
• "Explore my background": Invite students to share their cultural backgrounds with American culture. Try using a graphic organizer and visuals to compare/contrast.

Some districts have an APL or an Assessment of Primary Language, which consists of a short reading and writing assessment.

If this does not exist, you will have to do a little bit of investigation. First, make sure you know your student’s L1 or primary language. Then get a few basic reading or writing resources in that language and see if the student can engage with the material.  During this informal assessment, be sure to meet one-on-one with the student at a place where you cannot be overheard by other students. This discussion may be uncomfortable for students who do not have L1 literacy.

Look for resources that provide a contrastive analysis of the two languages, which can help newcomer students draw similarities and differences between their native language and English. Use resources that explore foundational literacy skills such as comparing the print (e.g. written alphabet) of the language and sound-symbol relationships as well as conversational aspects of the language.

One of the best ways to involve your families is to reach out to them. Welcome them. Provide your office hours and accessible phone numbers. And, most importantly, make sure these communications are translated into the languages they read and speak. If possible have a translator reach out to them via phone or home visit. 

It is very important to know what is on your English learners' Individualized Education Program (IEP). This is a legal document outlining the type of support that the students should be receiving. This might mean that the students should be receiving an instructional support aide to support the students with accessing English content. It could also mean the student receives additional supports during testing. If teachers are not aware of these supports, these students will probably not receive them which may mean non-compliance.  

Yes. WIDA tends to be content-heavy, but it does provide detailed differentiation of student skills and competency expectations at each level. You may have to do some digging into the proficiency level standards to understand the nuances of what skills are being taught.

When looking at the WIDA standards, look specifically in the section about Language Functions and Features. These sections speak specifically to language development.  

Most students in the early primary grades acquire English fairly quickly.  However, it is also important that the students receive direct instruction in foundational literacy skills (e.g., sound-symbol relationship, phonics, phonemic awareness, syntax, etc.) in English as well as be given structured grammar, speaking, reading, and writing opportunities.

This is not always an easy task. Many content teachers will simply not try or abandon any scaffolds that they think do not benefit all of their students. I would start by providing my content teachers simple ways to scaffold instruction such as sheltered instructional techniques (think-pair-share, graphic organizers, step-by-step instructions, etc.)

One place to start is to make sure that you know your students’ proficiency levels. This will help you target your instruction. Use your ELD standards to help develop your lessons. Develop assignments that students can complete “outside” of your time with them. Provide extra credit, incentives, or certificates for completing these assignments. Make sure that the work that they are completing outside of class is connected to the language skills/competencies that you were covering during class. Lastly, be creative. Make it fun for them!

Yes, Language Tree does have resources that connect language to content. Language skill instruction is integrated in the context of academic content. This cross-curricular integration is especially important for more advanced learners who will be exposed to academic language throughout their school day and in their summative assessments.  

As ELD educators, think of language standards as the "driver" and the content topics/areas as the "passengers" in your instruction.  It's important for students to understand the relevance of language across all their subjects because language lives in math, science, and social sciences. There are some great publications that can help educators learn more about “Integrated ELD (English Language Development).

So much of what you are talking about has a lot to do with building a classroom environment where students feel comfortable. When I was a teacher, I did a lot of team-building and class-building activities where students had to rely on one another to complete a certain task. Try to make it engaging and stress-free while establishing a list of classroom norms that include:

• "It's OK to make mistakes."
• "We learn by doing."
• "We don't judge others - we lift each other up."

• There were two types of intervention referred to during the webinar. The first was an intensive ELD (English Language Development) intervention developed for students who are brand new to learning the English Language. This intervention was an established elective course for students.
• The other type of intervention that was discussed was a Reading Intervention course that focuses on the foundations of reading development, comprehension, and text structure.