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Do you have a new ELL student in your class?

Entering a new school can be overwhelming, especially if you don't speak the language. It is important to make the experience as welcoming as possible for the new student.When a student who speaks another language enters the school, it is crucial that the ELL staff be notified to initiate testing and determine is the students is eligible for ELL services.


	Tour The School

Assign someone to introduce the student to the office staff, the principal, PE teacher, music teacher, librarian, nurse, recess monitors and any other important adults at your school that the student may encounter.

A helpful tool is to have a Big Book available (see attachments) for both parents and students that provide picture support of your school tour. This is a great student project and particularly helpful when produced in the native language of your newcomer. Big Books are part of the Guided Language Acquisition Design (GLAD) strategies.

Attachments:

	just_thought_school.ppt
	sample_visual_schedule.ppt


	The Buddy System

It is helpful to select a buddy or two to a new ELL student to answer their questions and help them to follow along in class. You can assign a buddy for each time of the day to help share the load among students (e.g. a math buddy, a recess buddy, a buddy that has a similar schedule (secondary), etc.). It is also a good idea to look for other speakers of that language within the school. They can assist in getting important information to the student in addition to answering their burning questions.


	What to Expect

It is natural that a new ELL student who speaks no English will not be able to participate in all classroom activities right away. It is important to involve the new student as much as possible. Activities that lend themselves well to newcomer ELL students' participation include calendar/opening, science experiments, art, etc.


	Internet Resources for ELLs

Many websites offer content resources at various levels, which may help to meet the needs of your English learners as they are acquiring English. There are aso websites that offer materials is different languages.

Everythingesl.net, Colorincolorado.org and Enchanted Learning are great websites for classroom teachers with ELL students. For lesson planning templates click here.

Northshore School District subscribes to Nettrekker, an internet resource that provides educators with hundreds of links in all the content areas. Be sure to find the 'English Learners' button at the top of the page. Also, you can search content by elementary, middle, and high school levels to match your students' needs.

UnitedStreaming is another great internet tool available to Northshore employees. You can download images, sound clips, video, and more to support English learners in any content area.

NOTE: Nettrekker and UnitedStreaming are subscription services. You can access them from any district computer. If you wish to access UnitedStreaming from a non-district computer, you can use your NSD username and password to enter. If you wish to access Nettrekker from a non-district computer, contact the NSD Help Desk for the password.


	Materials in Your Building

There are some newcomer materials at each site to assist teachers in meeting their ELL students' needs. Each elementary school has a Newcomer Kit containing:

Survival Guide for Teacher
Information for Parents (English/Spanish)
Welcome to School for the Student (English/Spanish)
Newcomer Workbooks
Newcomer Program (K-2, 3-6)
Picture Dictionaries

Other materials at your building that may be useful to your new ELL student are:

Math Curriculum Spanish Materials
Photo Library

Materials available to secondary teachers that may be helpful for working with newcomer ELL students include:

Math Curriculum Spanish Materials
Picture Dictionaries
Newcomer Workbooks (7th and 8th Grade)