Reaching your Non-English Speakers Teaching NES Students

Even Native English Speakers can be NES students If you’re reading this, then you’ve received a copy of the WIDA “Can Do Descriptors.” If you’re reading this, then you’re probably quite concerned about how to communicate your material to one or more students who have NO English skills. Step one- BREATHE! You’re a professional teacher- you can do this!

Teaching NES Students Next step- think about what skill you ABSOLUTELY want students to take away from your lesson. An example from Language Arts- ELA teachers want students to write complete essays with few or no mistakes in spelling, punctuation, grammar. They want clear, complete thesis statements. An NES student will have to start with demonstrating their ability to outline well.

Teaching NES Students Yes, its not an essay. But one cannot write well until one’s thoughts are mastered. This is scaffolding at its finest. You MUST think literally of a scaffold or a ladder- to get to the top of the ladder, you must begin on the bottom rung.

Teaching NES Students Welcome your NES students by asking them to help label common items in your classroom in their heritage language. Now they’ll believe you are genuinely interested and care about teaching them. Now they’re more likely to be engaged when you’re teaching.

Teaching NES Students Secondly, as expert teachers, we know that we cannot teach students who are not engaged. By starting NES students on that bottom rung, kindly, gently and for as little time as possible, we are demonstrating to NES students that it’s OK to start small and work your way up. Students will engage and work hard when they feel it is safe to do so. Yes, they must literally feel safe to make mistakes, and grow from there.

Teaching NES Students When I began teaching ESOL I was asked, “How can you do that when you don’t speak Spanish?” My answer: “By remembering who my audience is. At the end of the day, these are just kids- kids who’s parents may be as far away as Puerto Rico, New York, Cuba, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, or somewhere else. These kids don’t speak English, but are required to make their way to

Teaching NES Students seven different classes, lunch, the clinic, guidance and the front office. They must follow signs, maps and directions, in English. These kids are required to learn the content of seven different classes in English, and make new friends often in English, pass standardized tests, all while having NO ENGLISH skills. It’s made me quite humble- and creative- I also have more fun than I’ve had in my entire career! 

Teaching NES Students So- what can YOU do to reach your NES students? The acronym WIDA stands for World-class Instructional Design and Assessment. But if you go to the site: https://www.wida.us/aboutus/mission.aspx you’ll find it means FAR more.

Teaching NES Students Look at your levels 1 and 2 under all four headings: Reading Writing Listening Speaking These are all things NES students CAN do to demonstrate their understanding of content. By including these tasks in your differentiated lesson plans, you can reach all your NES students- including the lower quartile of your native English speaking students. These tasks may be bottom rung, but they ARE engaging.

Teaching NES Students Usually you’ll find your students don’t stay on the bottom rung for long- they are high school students, so it’s likely not their first experience in a classroom setting, or discussing the water cycle. They’ve just never done it in English!  So- once you’ve realized they’ve mastered one bit of content, you move them to the next- just like “normal” teaching.

Teaching NES Students Remember-ALL students are in various states of language acquisition. Differentiating your lessons to meet the needs of ESOL students also meets the needs of many ESE and lower quartile students. Differentiating your lesson plans using the WIDA Can Do Descriptors makes planning much easier, less intimidating and gives you room for more creativity.

Teaching NES Students Finally, differentiating your lesson plans with the WIDA Can Do Descriptors will actually help you move your students more quickly up that scaffold/ladder than you thought! I hope this presentation has alleviated at least some of your fears or concerns. I hope this has been encouraging- so go HAVE FUN!