to two years), and coursework includes orientation to U.S.
schools and culture, instructional approaches that integrate
content and language learning, appropriate materials that
address specific learning needs, such as no or low literacy.
Successful programs also provide liaisons to connect parents
and families to appropriate social services. Importantly, these
programs provide extended instructional time (e.g., Saturday
school, after school and vacation programs, summer school,
field trips) that newcomer ELs need to accelerate their
linguistic and academic growth.
Depending upon the level and extent of previous
schooling they have received, newcomer ELs may need
additional support developing certain language and literacy
skills in order to fully engage in intellectually challenging academic tasks. It is important to note that
these students may have varying levels of native language foundations in literacy. Some students may
read proficiently in their primary language, while others may have gaps in their primary language
foundational skills. All students, however, can draw upon the knowledge of language and literacy
they have in their primary language (e.g., oral language skills, recognition of cognates, reading
comprehension skills, fluent decoding abilities) to inform their English language learning. Students with
established native language literacy and content knowledge can transfer these skills and knowledge
to English with appropriate instructional support. Understanding the language, literacy, and content
understandings newcomer ELs bring with them to U.S. classrooms is critical to ensure their steady and
rapid progress in English. (For more detailed information on what ELs at the Emerging, Expanding,
and Bridging levels of English language development can be expected to do with English, see chapters
2 and 9 of this ELA/ELD Framework.)
The Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) report Helping Newcomer Students Succeed in Secondary
Schools and Beyond (Short and Boyson 2012) provides case studies of effective newcomer EL
programs, and CAL also maintains a database of secondary newcomer programs (http://www.cal.
org/resource-center/databases-directories) that schools and districts may find useful. There is no
best model for meeting the needs of newcomer ELs, and schools and districts should carefully study
successful programs and understand the needs of their own newcomer ELs when setting goals and
designing programs. (To see a snapshot of a newcomer EL program, see the section for grades nine
and ten of this chapter.)
Immigration patterns suggest that most of California’s
adolescent ELs have been in U.S. schools for at least a few
years and many for longer than five years. Unfortunately,
many ELs enter high school not having received the
instructional support they needed to attain the advanced
levels of English or the requisite content knowledge
required to fully engage with academic high school
subjects. Fluent in conversational English but challenged by
academic English and disciplinary literacy tasks, these long-
term EL students (Olsen 2010) find it difficult to engage
meaningfully in increasingly rigorous coursework. Schools
should ensure that both normally progressing and long-
term ELs are immersed in rich instruction that accelerates
their understandings about and abilities to use academic English as they continue to develop
increasingly complex content understandings. This type of instruction requires teachers to develop
sophisticated understandings of the particular content knowledge and disciplinary literacy knowledge,
There is no best model
for meeting the needs of
newcomer ELs, and schools
and districts should carefully
study successful programs
and understand the needs of
their own newcomer ELs when
setting goals and designing
programs.Schools should ensure that
both normally progressing and
long-term ELs are immersed in
rich instruction that accelerates
their understandings about and
abilities to use academic English
as they continue to develop
increasingly complex content
understandings.Grades 9 to 12 Chapter 7 | 719