Teaching Students who are LEP/ELL

1. Teaching Students who are LEP/ELL LEP = Limited English Proficiency ELL= English Language Learner

2. LEP/ELL Demographics in the United States: • In the United States, there are over _____ LEP students. • A majority of LEP students are first or second generation Hispanic immigrants, though we have LEP students from across the globe in every state. • Many LEP struggle with reading and writing, and need your help for them to have success!

3. How do we determine if a student is LEP/ELL? • When students enter the US education system, the parents must first fill out a “Home Language Survey,” which indicates if the main language used in the home is English. • If the main language is NOT English, then the student must take an English assessment (the W-APT) to determine English proficiency. • This test will result in a score between 1 and 6 for each of the main communicative areas (Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening). If a student struggles in any of those regions due to limited English, they will be labeled LEP/ELL, and will have access to LEP services or will have their academic progress monitored by an ESL teacher.

4. Why is the W-APT/WIDA test score important? • As the teacher, it is very important to know and understand your LEP/ELL students’ WIDA scores. These scores range from 1 to 6, and reveal which communication areas the student may have trouble with. • The highest score a student can have is a “6” in any area, and this should indicate that the student has native-like English skills in that area. • The lowest score a student can have is a “1” which indicates they have little if any English communication capabilities in that area. These students are often new to the country and there fore called “newcomers.” • The next slide reveals the general English capabilities of students on each level from 1-6.

5. Performance definitions of WIDA LEP scores: • As seen on the chart to the side: a student who scores a “1” can only produce words or short phrases, whereas a student who scores a “6” has very specialized and technical English production.

6. What do we need to keep in mind while reading a students’ WIDA scores? • Students develop different capabilities at different speeds. • Often, LEP/ELL’s develop the speaking and listening English proficiency much sooner than reading and writing. • Speaking/listening depends on social vocabulary, and is picked up quickly in the lunch room/school yard, but Reading/Writing depends on more academic language, and takes much longer to acquire (5-7 years). • Therefore, a student may have native like speaking/listening, but is not able to succeed in reading/writing still because they do not have the academic language required.

7. A brief guide: A few reasons that LEP/ELL students struggle in content • Limited vocabulary: this prevents students from fully understanding and comprehending grade-level texts. This also limits a student’s ability to produce academic and technical analysis in writing. • Low reading levels: Many LEP/ELL students have below grade-level reading skills, in fluency and/or comprehension. Therefore, even simple reading tasks may be difficult of confusing for ELL’s. • Writing: Due to many factors (grammar, limited vocabulary, limited syntax, etc.), LEP/ELL’s often struggle to communicate fluently in writing. While the student may often understand a concept, they may have difficulty expressing that idea in English. • Background Knowledge: Finally, LEP/ELL students may have difficulty understanding content due to a lack of or different background knowledge about the world. If students have little familiarity with a concept, they will have difficulty understanding the information and connecting it with prior knowledge.