Florida Educators’ Guide to Supporting English Language Learners
Florida Educators’ Guide to Supporting English Language Learners
According to the Florida Department of Education, Florida is ranked 3rd in English Language Learner population in the country, totaling over 265,000 students, with more than 300 different native languages spoken. To address the needs of this growing segment of the student population, state educators are working harder than ever to refine administrative and instructional practices to help ELL students master both English and Florida’s rigorous academic standards.
To support you in your efforts, we’ve assembled a curated list of our top resources focused on helping ELLs achieve success in the classroom.
Build Strong Instructional Programs
Based on the 2018-19 Florida Standards Assessment (FSA) results reported by the FL DOE, 57 percent of students in grades 3-5 and 54 percent of students in grades 6-8 scored at or above achievement Level 3 in ELA. However, for ELLs, only 23 percent of students in grades 3-5 and 12 percent of students in grades 6-8 scored satisfactory or above. In mathematics, 62 percent of grade 3-5 students and 59 percent of 6-8 students scored satisfactory or higher, but for ELLs, that number was only 38 percent for grades 3-5 and 26 percent for grades 6-8.
Clearly, ELLs are not achieving at the same levels as their English proficient peers, which is not surprising as they face additional barriers to grasping academic concepts. One of the most efficient ways to support ELLs is to ensure that your school or district implements pedagogical approaches that accommodate a variety of educational needs. Utilize these planning guides to create or refine your instructional programs to support an environment in which ELLs and all students will thrive.
Use this worksheet to plan programs to address the needs of special populations of students, including ELLs.
A Guide to Engaging Your ELL Parents
It's not uncommon for parents of ELL students to feel intimidated or discouraged from becoming actively engaged with their children's education due to language barriers or other cultural differences. We gathered several resources to help you find ways to encourage your ELL parents to engage more.
Personalized Learning How-To Guide
Personalized learning allows educators to meet the varying needs of students, improving learning outcomes for all. This workbook takes the guesswork out of personalized learning by providing a step-by-step plan from development to implementation.
It’s a well-known fact that a strong foundation in literacy is key to future academic success for all student populations. This workbook evaluates the many facets of structuring an effective, research-based reading and language arts block and helps you select the appropriate technology tools to support your approach.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, in 2016, 62 percent of Florida’s ELLs graduated high school, which is 22 percent below the 84 percent graduation rate for all students. Because of the additional obstacles ELLs face, they often fall behind, so it’s important to have a credit recovery program in place to help students catch up and get on track to graduation. Edmentum’s credit recovery workbook will show you how to set up a new program or enhance your current credit recovery offering.
Implement Classroom Strategies That Support Language Development and Academic Achievement
Breakthroughs in student learning happen in the classroom, and as you work toward closing the achievement gap between ELLs and non-ELLs through more inclusive and accessible instructional practices, we hope you will find the resources below helpful.
- Why You Should Be Supporting Your English Language Learners with Sentence Frames
- [Test Preparation] 3 Classroom Strategies to Support English Language Learners
- 7 Tips to Help ELLs Prepare for High-Stakes Testing
- 7 Strategies for Supporting ELLs in the Mainstream Classroom
- 6 Back-to-School Tips to Support Your ELLs
- 5 Strategies for Helping Newcomer ELLs Thrive in Your Classroom
- 6 Strategies for Supporting ELLs in the Elementary Classroom
- 4 Strategies for Supporting ELLs in the Secondary Classroom
Looking for an online learning partner to help support your English Language Learners? Learn more about how Supporting Florida ELLs with WIDA-Correlated Programs.
