3 Free Progress Report Templates for ELLs

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Getting Started with Progress Reports

Progress reports can feel like just one more thing that you don’t have time for as a busy teacher. I find that while time consuming, they are in fact very helpful for knowing my ELLs better and helping to better plan instruction that matches their needs. I also find progress reports specific to ELLs a very helpful tool to send out to content teachers. Having a document about each student on hand that details who they are as a learner and what their English level is can be a very helpful tool for collaborative planning.

I’ve created and adapted several progress report templates for ELLs for you to use when doing progress report for ELLs. I discussed this more in my progress monitoring post if you want to check it out. The first one is a tool I called the ELL Snapshot. I modeled it after the one page, IEP-At-A-Glance that I receive when I have students receiving special education. My specific intention with this “Snapshot” was to send it out to content teachers.

The Snapshot includes:

• basic demographic info: name, grade, years in the country, home language
• linguistic strengths/challenges
• instructional suggestions
• WIDA levels of student
• Description of the “CAN DO Descriptors” copied and pasted from the WIDA site for reference to show what the student should be able to do given their linguistic level

ELL Progress Report

I like the concept of the ELL Snapshot, but I worked with my department so years ago to development a standard ELL progress report we would use across the district. We are no longer using these progress reports as a department, but I have continued to use them on my own. So, I have updated the template to make it easier to use without screwing up the formatting. It is available for grades 9-12 and also for grades 6-8. You can download it as a fillable PDF or a Canva Template.

Features of the Progress Report:

The top has the basic demographic information, as well as any services provided, the most recent ACCESS scores, and a spot to add in other assessment data. For me this usually includes the reading progress monitoring I’ve done with each student, meaning their QRI level and a writing assessment score as well.

Then there is a section for habits of work. These are the other aspects of student behavior that affect learning, but might not be directly related to language acquisition. These should be rated Beginning, Developing or Secure.

WIDA Can-Do Descriptors: Page two of the progress report has check boxes for all of the WIDA Can-Do Descriptors for language use in either the 9-12 or the 6-8 cluster in the four domains: listening, speaking, reading, writing. There is one page for 9-12 descriptors and another for the 6-8 descriptors. The idea is to save the report, then make a copy and date it, then simply check off the boxes for whatever skills a student has demonstrated. If you save a copy of the report and then make a new copy each time you report you will have it already filled out with all the check for the things that the student “can do”. So the student should have more and more boxes checked the longer they are receiving ELL services, or eventually graduate the program.

Content Specific Supplement

The last two pages are just for content specific skills: reading, writing, math, science, and speaking & listening. You could use these on their own, or as a supplement. These are more quick and dirty than the CAN Do Descriptors, but might be useful if you are trying to track what a specific student is struggling in. The ratings are 1-5 to align with the WIDA levels.

There are two versions of this content-specific template. The first acts a supplement to the main progress report. The second version uses those content specific skills as the full report. I’ve added a place to write the student’s demographic information, and there are also habits of work on the second page. This template might be easier to fill out if you had a lot of students because there are less options but it will still give you a good, broad overview of the student’s skills in all academic areas.

You can get all these templates by joining the Freebie Library.

Happy teaching!