Recent statistics suggest that only 56% of Black students and 55% of Latino students who enter the ninth grade graduate with a high school diploma four years later, and only 12% to 14% graduate having met the requirements to attend a state university. The reasons most often cited for those statistics are boredom and lack of engagement. Creating awareness of ELLs' schooling by seeing firsthand their academic and language proficiency needs is essential to systemically closing literacy gaps. An eye-opening way to see and create urgency around the academic language needs of ELLs is shadowing, a technique whereby educators spend a day in the life of an ELL to monitor his or her academic language experiences. Shadowing English language learners (ELLs) helps educators gain firsthand knowledge of where the gaps in their language development lay. On the basis of their observations and achievement data, participants explore strategies to support students. Next steps include selecting and using instructional strategies that support ELLs' language development in targeted ways. (Contains 2 figures.)