ENGLISH LEARNERS PROGRAM NEWS
APRIL 2021
ENGLISH LEARNERS PROGRAM VISION & MISSION
The English Learners Program is committed to upholding the Lancaster School District's vision of Options and Excellence in Education for Every Student, Every Day. We are dedicated to providing and supporting the necessary structures to ensure that English Learner students acquire English language proficiency in the most efficient and expedited manner, while attaining high grade-level academic achievement.
The mission of the Lancaster School District English Learners Program is to inform and empower instructional leaders as they provide high quality instruction, and language, academic, social, and emotional supports for English Learner students, by presenting and promoting effective and practical monitoring systems that allow for site autonomy and innovation.
IMPORTANT DATES
April 8 EL Chair Meeting Zoom 3:15pm
April 8 Part I - Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy: Creating the Conditions for English Learners to Thrive (TK-6) Register 2:30-4:30pm*
April 15 EL Design Team Meeting Zoom 3:15pm
April 21 Breaking Down the Wall for ELs Register 12:30-3:30pm*
April 22 DELAC Meeting Zoom 3:00pm
April 26 Part II - Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy: Creating the Conditions for English Learners to Thrive (TK-6) Register 2:30-4:30pm*
*See PD section below for description & intended audience. All PDs are OPTIONAL.
ACTION ITEMS FOR EL CHAIR / SITE ADMINISTRATOR
APRIL
______ ELPAC: Make sure your site is ready for the ELPAC team's arrival. More information below.
______ ELPAC Materials K-2: Make sure your secure materials are picked up from Special Programs before the team's arrival.
______ ELPAC Student Schedules: Make sure that teachers have notified students/families of the date and time they need to report to the site. Please ask your bil paraeducator to follow up with students/families that couldn't be reached.
______ ELD: Continue with your site's common formative assessments, and offer appropriate interventions to struggling ELs.
MARCH
______ ELPAC: Make sure your site is ready for the ELPAC team's arrival. Information to follow soon.
______ ELAC: Hold fourth ELAC meeting and send documentation to Special Programs.
FEBRUARY
______ Struggling RFEP students: Make sure your flagged RFEP students are receiving appropriate supports, and keep documentation.
______ Reclassification: Make sure all eligible students at your site are reclassified by Feb 26.
______ ELAC: Hold third ELAC meeting and send documentation to Special Programs.
DECEMBER
______ RFEP Monitoring: Make sure all forms are submitted by December 18.
NOVEMBER
______ ELD Benchmarks: Make sure to share assessment links with ELD teachers by Nov 6.
______ ELD Benchmarks: Make sure all EL students complete the assessments by Nov 20.
______ ELAC: Hold second ELAC meeting and send documentation to Special Programs.
OCTOBER
______ ELD Benchmarks: Communicate testing window and expectations with your staff. Curriculum videos are included in the Benchmarks section.
SEPTEMBER
______ ELD Workbooks: Make sure all of your ELD teachers have enough workbooks for their students by Sept 11.
______ ELAC: Hold first ELAC meeting and send 20-21 ELAC meeting dates to Special Programs by Sept 30.
______ Reclassification: Make sure all eligible students at your site are reclassified by Sept 30.
______ Struggling RFEP students: Make sure your flagged RFEP students are receiving appropriate supports, and keep documentation.
AUGUST
- Name of administrator responsible for your site's EL program
- Name of EL Chair
- List of SEI teachers, by grade level (who will be teaching Designated ELD?) If all teachers, please indicate so.
Mon-Wed-Fri *
2:00-3:00PM
ELPAC: MARCH 29 - MAY 10
IN PERSON (computer-based)
All students will be assessed in person, at their home school, by certified bilingual paraeducators.
Students have been scheduled for either a morning (8-11am) or afternoon (12-3pm) session.
All four domains will be administered in one sitting, with breaks.
The entire test takes about 3 hours.
A remote testing option will be provided after 5/10 on an individual basis, for grades 3-8.
GRADES 2-8
Listening, Reading and Writing (paper-pencil for grade 2): groups of 10
Speaking: one-on-one
GRADES K-1
All domains are one-on-one
- Writing is paper-pencil for all (paper form is not reusable)
ELPAC Site Schedule by Grade Level
5 KEY STRATEGIES FOR EL INSTRUCTION
English Learners (ELs) face the double challenge of learning academic content as well as the language in which it is presented. Teachers have traditionally treated language learning as a process of imparting words and structures or rules to students, separate from the process of teaching content knowledge. This approach has left ELs especially unprepared to work with the complex texts and the academic types of language that are required to engage in content area practices, such as solving word problems in Mathematics, or deconstructing an author's reasoning and evidence in English Language Arts. ELs need to be given frequent, extended opportunities to speak about content material and work through complex texts in English with small groups of classmates.
Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards also call for all students, including ELs, to master an array of academic language practices that are critical to achievement in content areas. ELs benefit from instructional approaches that treat language and content in an integrated way that is designed to help them build the language skills that they need to succeed in content classrooms, college and careers.
These are five key strategies for encouraging English Language Development:
1. SCAFFOLDING UNDERSTANDING - providing ELs with strategic types of scaffolding, such as graphic organizers, visual aids, peer help, or home language help, and removing these supports as students' skills develop. This way, ELs can be given the opportunity and the necessary support to meet rigorous academic standards.
2. PURPOSEFUL GROUPING - ELs learn best when they are in heterogeneous classrooms. ELs need to be given ample opportunities to have extended interaction (such as doing 'jigsaw'-type activities) with peers of varying English proficiency levels, who can provide ELs with a range of models for how to use English words or structures appropriately, as well as abundant, personalized feedback on ELs' own developing English use. It is best for ELs if, within their classrooms, teachers sometimes group students heterogeneously according to English proficiency, and sometimes homogeneously, depending on the purpose of the task at hand.
3. BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE - provide them with relevant background knowledge about a topic to be discussed in class, or activate their existing knowledge of a topic. Besides increasing student interest, this allows students to focus more fully on the instructional goals, rather than being overwhelmed with too much new information at once. It also allows ELs to bridge new knowledge to old knowledge, increasing understanding, and it helps some ELs fill in contextual information (such as American political history or cultural details) that they may not have due to coming from different cultural backgrounds.
5. VALUING LINGUISTIC DIFFERENCES - teachers can help ELs greatly by learning about ELs' home cultures and languages, treating cultural and linguistic differences as resources rather than obstacles, and reaching out to students' homes and communities to build learning opportunities together.
Written by Rebecca Greene
https://www.teachingchannel.com/blog/5-key-strategies-for-ell-instruction
ADMINISTRATORS IN ACTION: FOUR WAYS FOR STRENGTHENING YOUR EL PROGRAM
Supports EL Roadmap, PRINCIPLE 3: System Conditions that Support Effectiveness
These steps can help administrators fill in gaps and strengthen areas of their English language programs. As administrators plan for next year's instruction and professional development, here are some questions they can use for reflection:
- Know your EL and teacher population – both collectively and individually: What do administrators need to know about their EL population, staff members who provide instruction for ELs, and model(s) of EL instruction provided in their buildings?
- Know the curriculum: What are some ways teachers can collect evidence of student progress, both content knowledge and English language development, and articulate that progress to administrators, parents and other stakeholders?
- Include all data: What actions can administrators take to assure success of English learners? If performance data is collected and analyzed, is English language proficiency data being included? Are both informal and formal language assessments being evaluated and discussed? In not, what's needed to include them?
- Clearly define best practice for ELs: What considerations should administrators be more aware of when evaluating teachers of ELs? What support do administrators need to recognize and look for best practices for ELs at various levels of English development?
These four steps are not exhaustive, but they provide a starting point to self-assess your EL program from an administrative/program manager perspective. Once you have a better understanding of your population, staff, curriculum, and approaches to assessment and instruction, your will be able to make sure that your instructional planning, implementation and sustainability meet the needs of teachers and students alike.
Leaders of programs serving English language learners must take a reflective approach to improving outcomes for ELs in order to see their students succeed. Taking time to assess what works, what doesn't and how to revise existing plans is an essential component of being an effective leader. Now is the time to refocus teams and highlight student and teacher successes so that your EL program will continue to improve by supporting the academic achievement of ELs.
Written by Dr. Ayanna Cooper
https://www.colorincolorado.org/blog/administrators-action-four-steps-strengthening-your-el-program
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES
For Administrators, Instructional Coaches, Teachers
Breaking Down the Wall
04/21/2021
12:30 pm - 3:30 pm
Participants will learn about the research and practical strategies to ensure educational excellence for our culturally and linguistically diverse children who come to school with tremendous assets. Dr. Soto will provide an overview of the nine tenets educators can use as calls to actions in their own efforts to realize our English learners’ potential.
All participants will receive a free copy of Dr. Soto's book - Breaking Down the Wall.
For Administrators, Instructional Coaches, Teachers
EL RISE: Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy: Creating the Conditions for English Learners to Thrive - TK-6
(2 Day Event) 04/08/2021 | 04/26/2021
2:30 pm - 4:30 pm
Creating an inclusive, linguistically, and culturally affirming classroom community is a central priority for effectively serving English Learners at the elementary level (TK-6). By providing students with mirrors to positively reflect their intersectional identities and windows to embrace the diversity of our world, we can create classrooms and communities that respond to our students’ strengths, needs, socio-emotional health and identities. This two-session webinar series, with embedded pre-session work and follow-up reflection and application, focuses on how teachers can enact Principle 1 of the English Learner Roadmap in their virtual or in-person classrooms. Teachers will learn specific skills and strategies for leveraging their students’ and families’ cultural and linguistic assets, celebrating and affirming identity, strengthening classroom community, and facilitating collaborative learning spaces.
For Administrators, Instructional Coaches, Teachers, SDC Teachers
UDL/EL Webinar Series
Understanding the core concepts & Principles of Universal Design for Learning To Support ELs Virtually
Part I: Webinar recording available at https://youtu.be/gHVNPPFsZWg
Presentation slides and toolkit available at https://mcap.gocabe.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Day-1-Resources-and-Materials-Dec.-8th-2020.pdf
Part II: Webinar recording available at https://youtu.be/vAYy_GFgHMg
Presentation slides and resources available at https://mcap.gocabe.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Day-2-Resources-and-Materials-Dec.-9th-2020.pdf
Part III: Webinar recording available at https://youtu.be/yetSWsgCLqc
Presentation slides and resources available at https://mcap.gocabe.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Day-3-Resources-and-Materials-Dec.-10th-2020.pdf