ELD Weekly Bulletin
Title III/ELD Listserv - February 22, 2016
Fair and Square Assessments for ELLs
At a recent professional development institute in a school district in New York State, I led content-area teachers new to teaching English language learners (ELLs) through a geometry lesson entirely in German. I first lectured to them without providing any scaffolds, and then I gradually included visuals and a bilingual glossary in my instruction. Later, I had them complete a classroom assessment in German using the supports provided, working in pairs, and speaking in English. Reflecting on his experience, one middle school teacher noted he suddenly realized why his beginning-level Nepalese student seemed so tired at the end of the day. This exercise gave teachers a small sense of how flawed content assessment can be for ELLs when students are not yet fluent in the language.
Helping ELLs Excel
Setting Clear Learning Purposes for ELLs
The language of school is demanding; much of the content is decontextualized and abstract, and it concerns matters that are far removed from the daily life. Students are expected to learn about rain forests and prime numbers, literary motifs, and historical events that occurred centuries ago.
Consider the additional cognitive demands confronting ELLs, who must tackle academic language and translate between their native language and English. For students who are recent immigrants with limited formal schooling, the classroom environment is even more complicated. Their teachers must teach not only the content, but also the language and social demands of the lesson. Understanding the purpose of their learning activities in all three areas—content, language, and social interaction—can help ELLs excel.
Check out the video below about setting clear purposes for ELLs and read more about how to provide this instructional support in your classroom here.
Tomás Rivera Recognition
A big congratulations to the Tulsa PS team members were among the recipients:
Lee Ann Macomber, Fine Arts Coordinator
Amanda Peregrina, Instructional Technology Coach
Maria Ochoa, Parent Volunteer, Owen ES
Stephen Bell, Teacher, Hale JH
Get Your ELLs Talking
As we've learned through other strategies, once you establish and practice oral language discussion routines with ELLs, those same strategies can carry over to their writing to stimulate developed and expanded academic writing.
Celebrate International Women's Day!
When: February 27, 2:00pm to 4:00pm
Where: Martin Regional Library
Webinar: The Science of Dual Language
The science of dual language learning for children birth through age five: Effective practices that improve outcomes, by Linda Espinoza
Date: May 11, 2016
Time: 1:00pm
In this session, Dr. Espinosa will briefly describe a new report from the National Academies of Science, Fostering School Success for DLLs Birth to Eighteen. She will then review what is known about best practices for young DLLs, birth to five, and provide classroom examples of research-based strategies to support the development and achievement of children who are not native English speakers. One of our most critical educational issues facing the nation is how to provide equitable and high quality PreK education that supports long-term school success for children who have been traditionally under served or inappropriately served. New research is shedding light on how to capitalize on DLLs linguistic knowledge and reduce the achievement gap at kindergarten entry this setting the stage for life-long learning. In this session, you will learn which strategies work best and which practices to avoid.
Click here to register. Can't participate? Access the archive here.
Upcoming Immigration Forum
Feedback Needed: ELD Team T-Shirts
I need feedback from you on your interest in purchasing an ELD team t-shirt so that we can set a price with the vendor. Prices will vary depending on how many t-shirts we can tell the vendor will be ordered. For the purposes of a quote, if approximately 50 t-shirts are ordered, then the individual price per t-shirt will be $9.50 for sizes S - XL and $10.50 for larger sizes.
Please complete this brief survey on your interest in purchasing and ELD team t-shirt.
ACCESS Test Planning Resources
Materials pick up at Enrollment Center: February 4 & 5, 2016
ACCESS 2.0 & Alternate ACCESS
- ACCESS 2.0 Roles & Responsibilities
- ACCESS 2.0 Test Administrator Form
- ACCESS 2.0 Training Schedule
- ACCESS 2.0 Additional Materials Order Form
ACCESS 2.0
- ACCESS 2.0 Q&A PowerPoint
- ACCESS 2.0 Accessibility & Accommodations Descriptions
- ACCESS 2.0 Headphone Specifications
- ACCESS 2.0 Sample Items
- ACCESS 2.0 Updates as of 02/03/2016
Alternate ACCESS
Missed an ELD Department Meeting?
Upcoming Title III Events
February 23, 8:30am - Alternate ACCESS New Test Administrator Training
February 23, 12:30pm - Alternate ACCESS Veteran Test Administrator Training
February 23, 3:30pm - SIOP Seminar: Comprehensible Input (Elementary)
February 23, 4:00pm - Spanish for Educators (Edivate)
February 23, 4:30pm - SIOP Seminar: Comprehensible Input (Secondary)
February 25, 3:00pm - Special Education Interpreter Training (Edivate)
All sessions are listed for enrollment in MyLearningPlan unless noted.
ELD Weekly Bulletins for SY2015-2016
February 16, 2016 February 8, 2016 February 1, 2016 January 19, 2016 January 11, 2016 January 4, 2016 December 18, 2015 December 14, 2015 December 5, 2015 December 2, 2015 November 30, 2015 November 16, 2015 November 9, 2015 November 5, 2015 November 2, 2015 October 26, 2015 October 19, 2015 October 12, 2015 October 5, 2015 September 28, 2015 September 21, 2015 September 14, 2015 September 7,2015 August 31, 2015 August 24, 2015 August 19, 2015 August 17, 2015 August 10, 2015 August 3, 2015 July 27, 2015