But he/she can't do anything!!!!

It's that time of the year.
School has started and new students arrive in your class.

You've spent weeks making preparations and having desks, tables, materials ready for your students to dive in.

Then in walks a student, or maybe two or three, and they are introduced as English Learners. Your first thoughts probably swing the pendulum from "oh s$&# - to - I'm up for the challenge".
You might have an EL teacher on staff who immediately steps in and starts working with him/her/them/you.

The reality is you now have this student in your class and you're accountable for making all content comprehensible, um BY LAW.

You're going over procedures and reviewing what we should know and remember from last year, and this new student is:

*Digging in their desk
*Putting them head down on the desk
*Poking their neighbor with a pencil
*Rolling around on the carpet
*Refusing to take papers you hand out
*Doodling on um everything

They are not doing anything YOU want them to do.

Like most newcomers (my own sons included-as recent as March/April/May), they may begin presenting as behavior issues.

This is very typical of our older students because of these reasons (not an inclusive list):
~They don't have language to interact with peers and end up doing childish or "bully like" behavior (poking, tripping, hiding objects)
~They don't know what those around them are saying 99% of the time and so they find other ways to occupy their mind/time
~They begin to assume others are talking negatively about them when they hear their name
~Refuse to work at all if it looks like the work their peers have to do ( language intensive)
~Refuse to modified work (they don't want to be looked as incompetent)

What I have witnessed and known teachers to do (info gathered from a national group of experienced el teachers); good and bad ~ reality not judgement based

•Assume students don't know anything, students pick up on this really quickly
•Ignore them
•Treat them with low expectations
•Pawn them off to the specialist 
•Partner them up with a Language buddy if available
•Remove language from worksheets (daily math/exit slips)
•Pair up with a social buddy to reinforce procedures 
•Provide jobs that engage in instruction, not just to keep the student occupied. 
•Engage the class in an immersion experience (w/o the newcomer present ) so the students have empathy and understanding. I have seen students really react positively to this.
•Provide frequent brain breaks -having to hear a language you don't understand all day is like being submerged in water and having someone yelling at you (that muted whawha noise)
•Teach phrases and sentences starters so they can participate
•Have them repeat directions to a partner 
•Do a quarter of the written work (copying words you don't understand is meaningless)
•Provide notes (close notes) and have them highlight they can review  key terms

There is a chance a newcomer has had interrupted schooling or has skill deficits. This is impossible to know without giving a language free skills assessment.

Should they be held to school wide behavior expectations -yes [when taught and understood].

Family partnership is critical as we have seen students physically get ill, leave school without permission, refuse to enter classes, lash out and flat out say "no".

Patience and empathy is critical.

My own 13 yr old went through most of things on this list. 6months later he is happy to go to school and happy when he gets home. 
There is always a lot a newcomer CAN do.

If you need assistance ASK!