Supporting English Language Learners
The content and tools teachers need to include ELLs in every lesson
The content and tools teachers need to include ELLs in every lesson
According to a 2022 study, an estimated 67.3% of teachers had at least one ELL student in their class. Yet, less than half of those teachers had taken a course on how to teach ELL students, and only 10% had educational degrees or certificates in teaching ELLs.
This disconnect is concerning, especially since the percentage of ELL students in schools is expected to rise again by 2025. Experts predict that one in four students in the classroom will identify as an English learner by then.
Teachers often feel unprepared when supporting English language learners. Especially in content areas like history and science, it can feel particularly challenging to balance delivering subject-area lessons while building literacy and English language skills. But finding that balance is crucial.
Research shows that students benefit from combining explicit language instruction with other content-area-specific learning opportunities to use and practice the English language. In other words, teaching specific vocabulary and English language instruction, in addition to contextual learning, is essential to building English proficiency. Educators need appropriate materials, guidance, and tools to help ELLs engage in classroom learning regardless of their English proficiency level.
One note: Just like state standards, when it comes to referring to students who are learning English, the terms are highly regional. While English learners (ELs) is the predominant term used in the majority of U.S. states, English language learner (ELL), multilingual learner (ML or MLL), and emergent bilingual (EB) are also commonly used terms.
The unique needs of English language learners in the classroom
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the number of English language learners in the U.S. K-12 student population increased to over 10% between 2011 and 2021. That’s about 5.3 million students whose reading and learning across subject areas are impacted. Some states—like Texas, California, and New Mexico—had rates as high as 18-20% ELL students.
English language learners in the U.S. represent over 400 languages, which strengthens the cultural diversity of their schools and communities. At the same time, the needs of ELL students bring some unique challenges for districts that must ensure teachers can adequately differentiate and plan culturally relevant instruction that aids students' English language acquisition and builds their academic knowledge.
Because of the wide variety of native languages ELLs speak, the similarities between their native languages and English vary. Like native English speakers, their background knowledge and English proficiency vary too.
We can categorize some of the primary needs of English learners into a few buckets:
Without targeted support for ELL students in these areas, educators run the risk of failing a significant portion of the 5.3 million ELL students in the US, limiting their access to college and careers.
The elements of ELL support
In a classroom full of students with diverse learning needs, it’s hard for a teacher to prepare a lesson that works for everyone. It’s even more difficult to do this when your class includes students whose native languages aren’t English.
Strategies that teachers already use to support special education students or struggling readers may also work to support ELLs. But other distinct elements specifically benefit ELLs. There are many key elements—both general and ELL-specific—that support English language learners in developing language proficiency, including:
Translated texts
Differentiated instruction
An inclusive classroom environment
Resources to activate and build background knowledge
Specific training on instructional approaches for ELLs
1. Translated texts can help students access grade-level content learning
Translated texts, when used appropriately, can help overcome some of the linguistic barriers to learning content and enable participation in collaborative activities that reinforce learning in English.
One strategy to support English language learners is translanguaging, an instructional approach that encourages bilingual and multilingual students to use all their languages to learn rather than limiting them to English. Providing texts in a student’s native language values English learners’ linguistic identity, enables them to learn subject-area content, and allows them to participate in class alongside English-speaking peers while developing their English language skills.
About 76% of the 5 million ELL students have Spanish as their home language, so having access to Spanish language texts is particularly useful.
Unfortunately, most curricular resources don’t always provide full translations to students’ native languages, and online translating programs like Google Translate don’t always produce accurate translations. Texts can become too easy, too difficult, or miss the meaning of original content.
What’s more, many teachers don’t speak their students’ native languages and therefore might struggle to find appropriate resources and give effective instructions during lessons. There might be resistance to introducing resources in a student’s native language out of concern that they may not be able to properly assess and support their work.
2. Differentiated instruction builds an integrated and inclusive classroom
Teachers with English learners in their classrooms need materials that can appropriately engage, challenge, and support every student in their class.
All students benefit from materials that are slightly above their reading level—enough to challenge, but not too much to be discouraging. Research in the science of reading shows that reading texts at the appropriate level of complexity frees up cognitive resources that can then be used for comprehension and learning from text. English learners are no different. Providing ELLs with texts that have been written at a linguistically simple level but present grade-level concepts can help bridge the gap between English proficiency and the topics covered in class.
In addition to resources with different reading levels, teachers can also aid reading comprehension with video or other media, graphic organizers, peer and/or group support, scaffolded assignments, and simplified instructions and expectations. Giving ELL students opportunities to show their knowledge in multiple ways—like the ability to share responses through audio recordings, drawings, and more—also allows them to demonstrate comprehension with less of a barrier.
Differentiated resources enable all students to participate in class, but manually differentiating materials and lessons is time-consuming. Only some teachers know where to start, even if they have the time. So providing teachers with resources that have built-in scaffolds and ways to differentiate is crucial to ensuring support for ELLs.
3. Resources that activate and build background knowledge accelerate English learning
If students are new to a U.S. school system or if language barriers in the past prevented them from acquiring background knowledge in earlier grades, English language learners may have gaps in background knowledge. Without a solid foundation for building new knowledge, ELLs may get lost in a lesson and miss out on learning. And because learning builds on itself, if a student cannot build those early essential knowledge and skills, they risk falling further and further behind.
ELLs may also need extra support to fill in gaps and opportunities to make connections to their own knowledge and experiences. Providing engaging, culturally relevant resources that establish foundational concepts of key curricular units enables all students to see themselves in the lessons and build connections from their own experiences to the curriculum.
Students who lack some background knowledge compared to their peers risk disengaging because they don’t understand the lesson or can’t participate. Teachers need materials that meet student interests, highlight important vocabulary words or concepts that build knowledge, and are linguistically accessible.
4. Specific training on instructional approaches to support ELLs
There are a variety of best practices when working with ELLs in the classroom. In addition to providing scaffolding/differentiation and building background knowledge, educators should:
Gain and promote awareness and connection to students' cultures.
Establish different ways and offer multiple opportunities for students to produce language and show their knowledge.
Teach learning and organizing skills through practices like using graphic organizers.
Integrate SEL into lessons to create a welcoming, comfortable environment where
students feel accepted and can take risks.
Teach vocabulary through explicit and contextualized instruction.
Use visuals, kinesthetic activities, and other learning styles.
Read more about instructional approaches to support ELLs
Supporting English language learners with Newsela
Newsela’s products are grounded in the learning sciences and the science of reading research. With Newsela ELA, Newsela Social Studies, Newsela Science, and Formative educators can support students of all levels of English proficiency with diverse and differentiated content and activities. These scaffolds and supports ensure students connect deeply with texts, find more meaning in the current curriculum, and gain a better understanding of their worlds. Newsela products help ELLs reach and exceed grade-level standards through:
Texts and videos specifically curated to build background knowledge
Newsela ELA’s Novel and Book Studies provide curated texts, videos, and practical instructional tips to help teachers enhance their lessons for almost 500 of the most commonly taught books and novels. These collections build the background knowledge students need to better understand classroom books and connect meaningfully to themes, topics, story elements, and much more.
Curriculum Complements bring more relevance to existing materials. Teachers can strengthen background knowledge for every student with collections and practical instructional guides that align with dozens of top curricula like Amplify, myPerspectives, HMH, and more.
Research Project collections enable students to investigate and explore their worlds. With text sets that offer context and connections for a range of popular topics, teachers have everything they need to spark student interest, build new knowledge, and develop research skills.
Various scaffolds for ELLs embedded throughout the products
All Newsela texts are available at five reading levels so all students can access the same content, regardless of their literacy skills.
Power Words, exclusive to Newsela ELA, provide in-context definitions for Tier II words, helping students better comprehend the text while building their vocabulary. Additionally, students can hear the Power Words read aloud and practice the vocabulary with activities at the end of each text.
Spanish translations at five reading levels are available for a significant number of Newsela articles—all with quizzes and writing prompts so teachers can check for understanding in real time.
Read aloud mode allows students to listen to any Newsela article at all reading levels in English or Spanish, supporting fluency and pronunciation.
Annotations enable teachers to highlight ideas, ask questions, provide context for students, and create different annotations for each level of an assigned text.
Audio questions in Formative allow teachers to provide recordings of passages, questions, and instructions for students who may struggle to read in English. Audio responses enable students to demonstrate their knowledge regardless of their English writing proficiency. These features also provide opportunities for exposure to and practice of English pronunciation.
Formative’s variety of written, audio, video, and visual feedback format options support targeted feedback for all students across the spectrum of English proficiency levels.
Better scaffold instruction for ELLs with practical guidance for teachers including ideas for pre-teaching vocabulary, differentiation suggestions, graphic organizers, and more.
Skills practice with engaging texts
Provide opportunities to practice skill-building strategies to support students with the main idea, point of view, text structure, and more—all with Newsela’s diverse library of over 15,000 engaging texts.
Use Formative’s student practice activities to build vocabulary and give teachers real-time insights into student progress.
Ignite student curiosity and build real-world connections to students’ lived experiences with articles that include embedded quizzes to assess gaps in student understanding.
How school districts are leveraging these products to support ELLs
A diverse set of middle school students experienced literacy growth
This ESSA Tier II study compared about 2,500 diverse middle school students in a large urban district in California—half who used Newsela ELA twice per week, and half who didn’t use it at all. Newsela users scored higher than non-users on their state assessment by the equivalent of about four percentile points. Among Hispanic/Latino students, Newsela users outscored non-users by about five percentiles.
How JS Morton empowered teachers with authentic common assessments and real-time results
JS Morton High School District 201 in Illinois has a large population of current and former English learners. Teachers needed a flexible, engaging platform to formatively assess students through more inclusive methods that would meet students—who come with a variety of learning needs and preferences—where they are. The district leveraged Formative’s 20+ activity types, including the audio response feature, to provide students with more ways to show their knowledge.
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Newsela Science
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