• ESOL Accommodations

    Classroom Accommodations: To succeed in the classroom, ESL students need access to appropriate supports, including:

    • Allow extra time on tests
    • Provide a quiet space to work
    • Explicitly teach language objectives.
    • Simplify the language used in instruction
    • Give additional instruction including reviews, drills
    • Use manipulatives to enhance concepts depending on the language level of learner
    • Provide visual aids to enhance key concepts
    • Provide for alternate seating for proximity to peer helper or teacher as necessary
    • Assist the student in building a picture file of key vocabulary
    • Assist students in underlining keywords or important facts in the text
    • Use prompts, photocopies of notes or outlines, or highlighted texts and materials
    • Utilize resources in the student’s first language
    • Teach new concepts in chunks
    • Provide frequent checks for comprehension
    • Orient students to expectations through rubrics
    • Provide simplified/additional instructions
    • Allow editing and revision before grading
    • Distribute a daily or weekly syllabus of class and homework tasks
    • Give alternative homework or classwork assignments suitable to the student’s linguistic ability for activities and assessments
    • Extend time for assignment completion as necessary
    • Give students an opportunity to express key concepts in their own words
    • Allow alternate reading assignments/materials at the student’s reading level
    • Utilize resources in the student’s first language
    • Substitute a hands-on activity for a written activity
    • Utilize assignment notebooks
    • Simplify language or shorten assignments
    • Provide a word bank
    • Allow the student to take the test/re-test individually with a teacher or paraprofessional
    • Read the text aloud
    • Allow for small group administration of assessments
    • Utilize informal observations of performance and classroom participation as a percentage of the overall evaluation (see rubric).
    • Incorporate group work into the assessment process
    • Simplify the language and organization of the assessment
    • Give opportunities for the student to take tests in sections/chunks
    • Allow for an extended time to complete the assessment
    • Provide the opportunity for a student to provide oral responses to be recorded by the teacher or paraprofessional
    • Allow editing and revision before grading
    • Design projects and assessments for the student that requires a reduced sentence or paragraph composition
    • Use rubrics as an assessment tool in place of textbook tests

    At Home Accommodations: Parents can support the work that is being done at school, by providing their children with the following at-home accommodations.

    • Play language development games
    • Learn the new language alongside your child
    • Provide a quiet place to study
    • Help with homework
    • Be understanding