LEWISTON — In a Longley Elementary School’s English Language Learner class, new words students learned Friday were how to ask for glue, a marker, a crayon, a pen.

“If you have some glue and I need some glue, I need to use these words,” ELL teacher Abigail Skelton said to a group of students learning English.

Turning to one boy, Skelton said, “May I have the glue please?”

“Yes,” said the boy, handing her the glue.

“Thank you,” Skelton said.

“You’re welcome,” he said with a smile.

One by one, the teacher and student acted out, and practiced, the new sentence.

After, students in the class opened their books, read the words they just said, and wrote the words.

At one point students began talking, becoming a bit noisy.

“Five, four, three, two, one,” Skelton said. The class was quiet by the time she came to “one.”

“We’ve practiced that,” Skelton explained later. “They know when I get to one, they need to be quiet, pencils down and they’re looking at me.”

That scene is played out in schools across Lewiston each school day, as students whose native language is not English learn English while learning other subjects.

In the last year, the number of ELL students grew for the ninth year in a row. There are 927 ELL students in Lewiston this year, compared to 732 last year. But about 95 of this year’s new students are due to the fact that Lewiston generated more students overall by creating six new prekindergarten classes, said Sue Martin, director of Lewiston’s ELL Program.

Not counting those new classes, this year’s ELL increase is 100, most from Somali families.

“Our numbers continue to grow,” Martin said Monday night while giving a report to the Lewiston School Committee. About half of the new students are from outside the United States, the rest from within this country.

Some come here proficient in English, others arrive with little English.

The growth is spread over several schools, but Superintendent Leon Levesque recommended a new ELL teacher be hired at Montello, a move unanimously approved by the committee Monday night.

The latest ELL enrollment numbers mean Lewiston’s schools have an ELL population of about 20 percent of the total student population. The majority know English well enough to be mainstreamed into regular classes and are doing well, Martin said. Fifty-six students no longer need any help learning English, she said.

It takes most people five to seven years to learn a new language well enough to not need extra help.

Last year 25 graduated from high school, which means they met all the graduation requirements.

“To me the measure of progress is acquiring English, moving beyond ELL and being successful, and graduating from high school college ready,” Martin said. “The college-ready piece is significant. We can let kids be in high school four or five years,” but if they aren’t ready for college at graduation their high school wasn’t sufficient.

To get to that high school diploma goal, ELL students have to learn more, and learn faster, than other students, Martin said.

When students arrive at age 7 and older with no schooling, most need more time to learn the language well enough, master subjects and graduate. Educators are now identifying and meeting with each grade 8-12 student who will need more than four years to graduate, Martin said.

Extra educational support outside normal classrooms is being offered, including homework centers, tutoring, summer school and interpreted parent conferences.

“I’m pleased with the number of kids moving up and taking advantage of the additional support,” Martin said. “I wish we could get 100 percent participation, but that’s coming.”