Beyond Fronteras
A Celebration of our ESC1 Bilingual Community: April 2021
On the Spotlight
We are now way into the spring semester and state assessments are already taking place in our schools. Adaptation is the name of the game! Please remember that we are in this together and that we are here to help, whenever you need us!
The fuel that has kept us going as educators throughout these past 13 months has definitely been our students. These beautiful and resilient children who have continued fighting throughout this time and who refuse to allow the circumstances stop their progress. Y para muestra, ¡basta solo un botón! Check out our incredibly talented Mariachi Santander from Roma ISD, who continue recording amazing videos to the delight of not only their directors and families, but the whole world! ¡Enhorabuena, muchachos! Thank you for uplifting our souls with your beautiful music!
And of course, thank you all administrators, teachers, paraprofessionals, support staff, students, families, and community members who continue to make this the best region in the whole wide world! ¡Qué sigan los éxitos!
¡Mil gracias y esperamos que disfruten este boletín!
KChapa :)
~ Virtual Learning Tips ~
By Claudia Coronado
Google Slides has so much potential for powerful technology integration in the classroom. So often, people think of presentation slides as just that: a visual aid for delivering a presentation in front of an audience. But Google Slides are powerful tools for delivering interactive user experiences. They can also create visually stimulating products to deliver a message and valuable content. By thinking outside the box with Google Slides, PowerPoint, and other similar tools, teachers can create unique learning experiences for students or students can create them to share with other students. A great resource of free google slides templates is Slidesmania. The templates will enable students to engage in creating an interactive slide deck book, playing Jeopardy! game or animate a concept.
~ Multicultural Book Spotlight ~
By Dr. Lileana Ríos-Ledezma
“We all start out believing we can do anything. Even Mexican kids that grow up here. But at some point we lose it. It totally disappears. Like me, for example. Why is that?”
Meet Danny. He’s tall, skinny, and too brown for the white kids at his private high school in Leucadia Prep. The other problem is he is also too “white” for his Mexican aunts, uncles, and cousins from National City, where Danny spends the summer.
As Danny struggles with his own identity and deep feelings of displacement, he begins to refine his baseball pitching skills at Las Palmas Park, a baseball field where his dad played Little League. He recognized the park from the framed picture his mom kept in the living room for years; even after they split. However, through baseball, an unlikely friendship, and a “Tower of Babel” crush, Danny begins to discover who he is and more importantly, who he wants to be.
Mexican Whiteboy is a recommended read for a mature audience due to content and issues readers may be able to relate to as they navigate the critical stages of adolescence. The book brilliantly demonstrates the complexity of real life, ranges of emotions young adults may experience, and highlights issues which may be difficult to talk about. Through Mexican Whiteboy, De La Peña provides a safe and powerful space for readers who may relate to come forward and speak.
~ ESL CORNER ~
Integrated Content and Language Instruction, by Claudia Coronado
No longer is learning complex language systems separated from conceptual learning because ALL learners benefit from language instruction through content and teachers must intentionally plan for maximize language development in the content. Academic language is more than building the vocabulary of a content area or cultural context. It includes thinking about the language in terms of its complexity. Language must be explicitly developed by targeting cognitive strategies that may assist learners in dissecting the complexity of the content. Learners should engage in holistic activities to develop language necessary to understand the context and utilize clues that may build their schema to facilitate abstract thinking. Therefore, integrated language and content instruction provides opportunities for learners to acquire a new language through the study of academic disciplines.
~ LA ESQUINA BILINGÜE ~
Tips for Bilingual Teachers, by Niranda Flores
Getting our students to become interested in reading the instructional text we will be using to develop content and skills can at times be very challenging. Through the use of mental images, Catch and Release is a pre-reading strategy to help students become intrigued with and develop a level of curiosity and interest for the reading material. Research tells us that independent readers often visualize while they read, which in turn, helps them process and store the information and facilitates retrieval for later use. Like it’s name, the purpose of this strategy is to catch the student’s attention and then release it to venture into the text. To put this strategy into practice, follow these next steps.
Preview the text and select 20 to 30 words that will evoke emotions and strong images. Sensory words are ideal for this strategy.
Before reading the wordlist, provide some context for the students.
Read the words SLOWLY and with a lot of DRAMA.
Encourage students to create mental images of the events they think will take place in the story.
As a new word is presented, motivate students to incorporate it into their mental image.
After all words have been read, have students engage in a task to help them process their thoughts.
Possible Tasks:
generate a question(s) about the text
write about their feelings as they heard the wordlist
draw a picture representing their mental image
make a prediction.
Have students share and discuss their end products as a way for them to see different interpretations of the wordlist.
Read the text, either as a class or independently and have students reflect on their end product. How close were their initial thoughts to the actual text?
Hope this strategy helps you “catch and release” lots of curious minds into a plethora of texts!
~ SELF-CARE CORNER ~
Because CARING begins with YOU! By Niranda Flores
Spring represents that time of year when we invest lots of time and energy in ensuring our house, yard, tool shed, etc are free of clutter and sparkling clean. This year, as part of the cleaning process, I challenge you to take a look past the physical clutter and pay close attention to the mental, energetic and emotional clutter that we can at times be burdened with. To help you release such clutter and live a life with more intention and better aligned to your true self, use the following reflective questions and question EVERYTHING (feelings, thoughts) and EVERY THING (possessions):
Is it useful?
Does it empower me?
Is it part of my present?
Does it help me better serve others and share my love?
Does it contribute to my purpose? If so, how?
Is it sacred to me?
If you answered no to one or more of these questions, it may be time to LET IT GO because it does not align with your TRUE SELF! Keep in mind that every time we declutter physically, mentally and emotionally, we actually make room for BIGGER and BETTER THINGS! Good luck with the process!
¿Sabías que...?
Demographic Shifts, por Lileana Ríos-Ledezma, PhD
Sabías que recent demographic shifts have resulted in an increase of English learners(75%) who have been exposed to Spanish and English from birth (Beenman & Urow, 2013)? Simultaneous Bilinguals are bilingual individuals who have been exposed to two or more languages since birth and the age of five (Escamilla, 2010). These bilingual individuals may have one parent or family member in which interactions occur mainly in one language, while interactions with the other parent or family member may be in another language.
Simultaneous bilinguals share a pool of knowledge between two languages; thus, this pool of knowledge is a linguistic asset (Beeman & Urow, 2013). These bilingual individuals synthesize their two worlds and unlike sequential bilinguals, will use both languages from the beginning, including often mixing them in a single phrase or sentence. For example, a simultaneous 3 year old may say, “No quiero ir outside”. For those who do not understand how simultaneous bilingual learners develop and use language, translanguaging or the mixing of languages, they will misinterpret this phenomenon as a sign of deficiency rather than a reflection of the learner’s extensive linguistic ability. In reality, simultaneous bilinguals could possibly have more extensive vocabulary in one language about a particular topic and more extensive vocabulary in another language about other topics. Encourage students to use all their linguistic resources as they learn to increase the transfer of language, literacy, and content.
~ BILINGUAL DIRECTORS CORNER ~
April is National Bilingual Learner Advocacy Month
2021 Summer School Guidance
19 Texas Administrative Code (TAC), §89.1250, requires local educational agencies (LEAs) to provide a summer school program for English learners who will be eligible for admission to kindergarten or first grade at the beginning of the next school year. LEAs will be provided with the following options to complete the required EL summer program for the 2020-2021 school year:
- complete the required 120 hours of instruction for EL summer school prior to the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year;
- schedule the required 120 hours of instruction for EL summer school to begin in summer of 2021 and complete any remaining hours (supplemental to the regular school day) throughout the 2021-2022 school year; or
- schedule the 120 hours of instruction (supplemental to the regular school day) during the 2021-2022 school year.
For more information, please visit: 2021 English Learning Summer School Guidance.
6th Annual Effective Border Schools Conference: June 1-2, 2021
Note: Project RISE campuses may attend for free! Just talk to your Campus Grant Manager to receive a registration code! Title III SSA districts may also attend for free! Just use code "SSA" when asked for a PO!
Federal Programs: Statewide Training Series
5th Annual Title III Parent Outreach, Family Engagement, and Community Participation Institute: May 5, 2021
English Learner Program Reports
This page will provide you with English Learner (EL) student program counts. You may receive the statistics either as a web page or an Excel file. The data will be summarized for a particular district, region, county, or the entire state. Values will be masked in order to comply with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). To view the new English Learner Program Reports, click this link: English Learner Program Reports 2019-2020 Please use a browser other than Internet Explorer
2021 TABE Summer Virtual Bilingual/ESL Directors’ Institute
Writing Culturally Relevant IEPs
DRC and Riverside
DRC (Pre-LAS and LAS Links): https://laslinks.com/texas/
Riverside (IOWA): https://info.riversideinsights.com/texas_elreclassification
Title III Course: Enhancing Instructional Opportunities for Immigrant Students: April 15, 2021
FREE! Title III Virtual Symposium: July 22-23, 2021
TELPAS Virtual Summer Academy: June 2021
Note: If participants are special education teachers, or if they attend with a special education teacher, they can attend for free by using code "SPED" when asked for a PO.
FREE! Online ESL Certification Training
USDE: Supporting EL with Interrupted Formal Education
USDE: Dual Language Podcast Series
TXEL Gets a Facelift!
~ UPCOMING EVENTS ~
- Enhancing Instruction Opportunities for Immigrant Students: April 15
- LPAC EOY Training: April 16
- HB 3906 Educator Forum: New Assessment Redesign: April 21
- Bilingual Directors Monthly Meeting: April 23
- 5th Annual Title III Parent, Family, and Community Institute: May 5
- TEA EL Support Division Meeting: May 7
- New Positive Character Traits Sessions: May-August
- 6th Annual Effective Border Schools Conference: June 1-2
- TELPAS Virtual Summer Academy: June 3, 4, 9, 10
Contact Us
Karina E. Zuno-Chapa, M.Ed.
Director of Language Proficiency, Biliteracy, and Cultural Diversity
956-984-6246
Claudia Coronado, M.Ed.
Bilingual/ESL Specialist
956-984-6246
Niranda Flores, M.Ed.
Bilingual/ESL Specialist
956-984-6158
Lileana Ríos-Ledezma, PhD
Bilingual/ESL Specialist
956-984-6153
Diana Gonzalez
Program Assistant
956-984-6238
Email: kchapa@esc1.net
Website: www.esc1.net/bilingual
Location: 1900 West Schunior Street, Edinburg, TX, USA
Phone: 956-984-6246
Facebook: facebook.com/ESC1Bilingual
Twitter: @esc1bilingual