No habla ingles

It's that time, once again, for the kids to do their TELPAS writing samples. I think I blogged about the TELPAS last year, calling it the stupidest, most subjective test ever. Thankfully, I passed it after the 3rd time last year and I don't have to take it again. Also thankfully, the test is for teachers and NOT for the kids.

All the kids have to do is write when I ask them to, ABOUT what I ask them to. There's really only one catch.

They have to write in English.

Now that's not a problem for most of my kids. Their spelling is often pretty lousy and their punctuation often nonexistent, but they are getting their thoughts across in English pretty well.

I have one little boy though that just knows no English whatsoever. I mean, he knows SOME, but very, very, VERY little. Certainly not enough to be able to put down his thoughts in English. Not even enough to put down a few WORDS along the lines of his thoughts in English.

And yet the guidelines say that EVERY child on the LEP (Limited English Proficiency) roster must have these writing samples, and they all must be in English!

So I'm just not sure what to do about this kid. He could probably copy words from around the room, but that's specifically forbidden.

Any ideas from people who have gone through this before?