English Language Learners

Literacy Instruction for Adolescent ELLs in the Content Areas

A key concern for all students in middle and high schools is how to scaffold adolescent learners' literacy development in content area classrooms. This concern is even more pressing for English language learners (ELLs), as they are working to develop literacy in a second language and learn content at the same time. At the secondary level, this is further complicated by the need to learn how to read and write academic English; ELLs' oral language proficiency is often higher than their written language proficiency, due to the unique demands of the academic language which writers are expected to use.

Using our set of professional development protocols, our specialists work with secondary content area teachers to raise their awareness of ELLs' literacy needs, and to develop their professional knowledge of research-based strategies and best practices for scaffolding ELLs' literacy development in content area classrooms.