EL Happenings
Volume 3 Issue 8
Teacher Feature
Amy Thomas is a sheltered content teacher at Southport High School. One of the SIOP components that Ms. Thomas used in her classroom was Review and Assessment. After pairing two primary source texts about survival together, then, reading the texts, etc. Ms. Thomas asked students to create their own survival stories. Students synthesized their new learning when creating and sharing their narrative survival stories. Thomas utilized features #27 and #29 for her unit of instruction.
#27 Comprehensive Review of Key Vocabulary
Students discuss various words in context while listening and sharing their stories. They were able to contextualize their vocabulary learning, as it related to the narratives that were being shared by their classmates, while writing definitions in their own words. This is an example of an effective review of vocabulary because they have been given many exposures to important words through meaningful tasks.
#29 Regular Feedback Provided to Students on Their Output
Because Ms. Thomas structured the tasks for her unit for students to consistently receive validating feedback, students were able to continue in their new learning and power through some new and challenging work. Feedback can be peer-to-peer and must be focused on content and language.
Students in Ms. Thomas's class used sentence frames to provide feedback.
"The problem/conflict in your story was_____." "My favorite part of your story was____."
Overall, the student learning was evident, as students were able to articulately interact with texts with proficiency of understanding, then create their own narrative and communicate their ideas succinctly. Great work, Ms. Thomas and class!
Primary Source Text
Structuring the Task for Consistent Feedback
Student Survival Stories
Teacher Takeaway
Need a strategy to use with your EL students for Vocabulary? Reading? Writing? Check out the over 75 different strategies taken from a workshop about scaffolding for English Language Learners........
The GO TO Strategies: Scaffolding Options for Teachers of English Language Learners K-12
Compliance Corner
Section 3 of IDOE's Accessibility and Accommodations Guidance describes accommodations as changes to standardized testing materials or procedures to support students with a disability, students with a disability who are English Learners, or students with limited English proficiency to participate in an assessment in a way that measures the student’s abilities. An accommodation does not change the construct being measured. These accommodations must be documented formally in the student’s educational record and be offered on classroom assessments on a regular basis.
Section 4 describes allowable accommodations for English Learners.
English Learners are identified as students who:
● are enrolled in Indiana schools with a non-English language indicated on the Home Language Survey
● have been assessed with WIDA English language proficiency screener (WIDA Screener or W-APT) and demonstrate an overall English proficiency level between 1.0 – 4.9
● have an Individual Learning Plan (ILP) that includes accommodations
Please check a student's ILP, located in Skyward, for their specific accommodations. Please check with your building's Test Coordinator and EL teacher if you think a student should have additional accommodations.
District EL Coaches
Nichole Seal
Email: nseal@perryschools.org
Twitter: @NicholeSeal2
Email: jtidd@perryschools.org
Twitter: @JJTidd