Through the looking glass
Abstract: Newcomers (recent immigrants to the US) face many challenges. Newcomers are required to learn the same content area material as native speakers while acquiring the English language fluency necessary to accomplish the task. Further, newcomers arriving in the US are not a homogeneous group, but rather a very diverse population with great differences in background knowledge, levels of schooling, and possibly time away from school (interrupted schooling). In a newcomer classroom, the educator is responsible for facilitating the acquisition of academic language and concepts for students with disparate levels of English and academic backgrounds. Alice, the instructional computer programming language, is particularly well suited to engage LEP students and facilitate the acquisition of academic language and concepts simultaneously.