Allen

Allen is 5 years old, and is in Kindergarten at an urban elementary school in a large Midwest city. Allen, his twin brother, and older siblings were born in the United States. His parents came to the U.S. from Mexico 16 years ago. Allen has two older sisters, one in middle school, and one in high school.

Allen’s father attended college in Mexico and graduate school in the U.S., and now works as an engineer with the department of transportation. His mother works as a bilingual paraprofessional for the school district. Spanish is the dominant language of the home. Allen enjoys school and loves using the computers and mobile tablets in class. He also is very active and loves going out to recess.

At school Allen receives sheltered English content-area instruction in his classroom and receives 30 minutes of daily ESL instruction through a pull-out program with a certified ESL teacher. His classroom teacher has also recently completed licensure in working with ELL students. Allen’s official English language proficiency level is 4 (WIDA).

At home Allen loves playing with his twin brother, and annoying his older sisters. His favorite TV shows include Power Rangers and Star Wars – The Clone Wars. He’s also a big fan of the Ninja Warrior show, and on weekends he frequently goes to a local gym with a Ninja Warrior-like obstacle courses set up. Allen boasts that he can make it up to the top of the challenge wall.