What CAN We DO to Support Our ELL Students?
This is the time of year when we begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
We look at our students and sigh as we feel the oppressing weight on our
shoulders become even heavier because we realize that some of our students
still have a long way to go. They haven’t mastered all the skills and they are
behind in meeting the standards in their content classes. Rather than focus on
the negative, let’s flip the picture and look at what they CAN DO. One of my
favorite resources is the WIDA CAN DO Descriptors.
The CAN DO descriptors show us what our students can do at each language
proficiency level in reading, writing, speaking and listening. They are listed by
grade-level clusters so that teachers can easily see what they could look like in
their content areas. They have added a new feature called the Can Do Name
Charts. Underneath each Can Do Descriptor there is a space for you to write in
the names of students who are working at this level. You can access these
charts here: CAN DO Descriptors
These charts can be helpful when explaining to general education teachers
how to differentiate instruction for ELL students. Below is a sample that can be
found at http://www.wida.us/standards/CAN_DOs/
Soledad Rios is a dual language teacher who works with students at various
grade levels. Here are some of her ideas for providing instruction in English that are
matched to what each student can do at their level in each language domain.
Student
Student E was
born and raised
in the United
States. He is
now in third
grade.
Differentiation
Ideas for Student
E (third grader)
Listening
CAN DO
Descriptor:
Expanding
Level 4
Speaking
CAN DO
Descriptor:
Expanding
Level 4
Reading
CAN DO
Descriptor:
Expanding
Level 4
Infer from and
act on oral
information.
Discuss stories,
issues, and
concepts.
Find details
that support
main ideas.
+ He could
benefit greatly
by contrasting
and comparing
two characters
from teacher’s
oral reading,
using a graphic
organizer.
+ He will
benefit by
presenting
reports on
research or
topics of
interest. “The
Aztecs.”
+He will
benefit by
drawing on
inferences
from the text
with the
teacher’s help.
Writing
CAN DO
Descriptor:
Expanding
Level 4
Take notes
using graphic
organizers.
+ He will
benefit by
practicing with
more graphic
organizers to
be able to
write clear,
organized and
cohesive
messages.
Student F moved
to the United
States in first
grade. Now she
is in fourth grade.
Differentiation
Ideas for Student
F (Fourth grader)
Student G was
born in the
United
States. He is
now in fifth
grade.
Differentiation
Ideas for Student
G (Fifth grader)
CAN DO
Descriptor:
Beginning
Level 2
CAN DO
Descriptor:
Beginning
Level 2
CAN DO
Descriptor:
Developing
Level 3
CAN DO
Descriptor:
Beginning
Level 2
Follow twostep oral
directions.
Describe
pictures, events,
objects, or
people using
phrases or short
sentences.
Identify main
Copy words,
ideas and some phrases, and
details.
short
sentences.
+ She will
benefit from
exercises that
contain oral
directions
involving
strategies
represented
visually. Look
at four answers
choose the best
one.
CAN DO
Descriptor:
Bridging
Level 5
+She will
benefit talking
about story
structure. She
could talk about
characters,
setting or
events. Consider
giving her
sentence frames.
+She will
benefit by
highlighting
main ideas or
supporting
details.
+ She will
benefit by
completing
passages using
word banks.
CAN DO
Descriptor:
Bridging Level
5
CAN DO
Descriptor:
Expanding
Level 4
CAN DO
Descriptor:
Expanding
Level 4
Carry out oral
instructions
containing
grade-level,
content-based
language.
Answer opinion
questions with
supporting
details.
Match graphic
organizers to
different texts.
Summarize
information
from multiple
related
sources.
+ He will
benefit by
analyzing,
interpreting
and evaluating
information on
charts, graphs
and tables as
directed orally.
+He will benefit
by debating on
school-related
topics or current
issues and
participating in
literature
circles.
+ He will
benefit by
making
predictions and
connections
between
familiar
content and
real-life.
+ He will
benefit by
writing a
research paper
on interesting
topics (e.g.
habitats).
( Follow these links to read other blog posts featuring the CAN DO Descriptors,
click here and here for high school and here for preschool. )
In addition to using the CAN DO Descriptors to differentiate instruction for ELL
students, they can also be used as a guide to where students need to go next.
Not only can we see what our students can do at their current level, we can see
where they will be going next. This helps us to scaffold their instruction in a way
that will gently encourage them to progress with their language skills.
Larry Ferlazzo writes a blog entitled Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…
which can be found at this link http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/.
He finds wonderful resources for teachers to use and organizes them into
collections on his site. I am sharing two interesting ones below:
1. Check out The English Verb Conjugator which has been added to Larry’s The
Best Web Tools For Teaching Irregular Verbs & Verb Tenses. The control panel
on the verb conjugator site gives you the tools to compare the principal parts of
the English verb system. You can make a list of infinitives you would like to
conjugate and a chart comes up with the principle parts. There is also a link to
the definitions.
2. Text Dependent Questions for ELLs was created by Diane Staehr Fenner.
Larry added it toThe Best Resources For Learning About Common Core
Standards & English Language Learners. This blog shares some ideas for using
text-dependent questions with ELL students.