GKCWP ELL Program

With the number of English Language Learners in Kansas City metro schools rapidly increasing, the Greater Kansas City Writing Project has made the ELL Program a priority. Educators across content areas are looking to implement strategies that will enable these students to be successful. The GKCWP hopes to provide needed resources and support to teachers who work with English Language Learners.

We have recently come to use the term Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) in our work with this program. A CLD student is any student whose home language is not standard English; this descriptor encompasses those students who speak dialects of English in the home. Many of the teachers who hear the term ELL and initially think, "I don't have those students" or "I only have one or two ELLs," reconsider when we redefine the group as Culturally and Linguistically Diverse. Suddenly, (especially urban) educators are saying, "That's all of my students." We have found that strategies designed to help ELLs with literacy and writing are strategies that also benefit CLD students as they develop their skills in using standard English.

The ELL Team meets online on the Kansas Writing Project Coalition ELL Ning to share strategies for working with ELL/CLD students and to discuss ways of developing more cultural awareness in our work with ELLs and their families. All teacher-consultants are welcome to join.

If you are not yet a teacher-consultant, please consider applying for our Invitational Summer Institute. It is our hope to bring more educators with expertise in this area into the GKCWP.t