EL Happenings
Volume 3 Issue 2
Teacher Feature
Teacher Takeaway - Visuals
SIOP Component Focus: Comprehensible Input
SIOP Feature Focus: A Variety of Techniques Used to Make Content Concepts Clear
Use Visuals for Scaffolding Instruction - These visuals would allow the content to be accessible and understood. Examples might include a multiplication chart in math, a table with examples of physical and chemical changes in science, a timeline with vocabulary and pictures to reference during a unit about Rome in social studies, or an anchor chart to describe the different kinds of text structures in language arts.
Use Visuals for Clarifying and Making Connections - These visuals help students understand the concepts because it clarifies a difficult topic and makes it easier to understand or allows for reminders and connections to be made between the visual and the concept. Examples might include math operation symbols next to the words, an illustration with the planets compared to each other in size for deeper understanding in science, pictures of the different types of land features in social studies or the picture of an umbrella to demonstrate the five senses can all be used under the "umbrella" of imagery in language arts. Sometimes the best connections are crazy and outside the box!
Use Visuals for Accessing Thinking - These visuals allow the teacher to observe what the student is thinking and show their understanding of the content even if the verbal or written language isn't always present. Examples might include an illustration of how the math problem was solved, a food web that must be filled in for science, filling in the missing parts of a time line in social studies, or a graphic organizer with illustrations of cause and effect in language arts.
Scaffold Instruction
Clarify and Make Connections
Access Thinking
Compliance Corner
Updated ILEARN Accommodations Guidance for ELs
The Office of Assessment has released updated accommodations guidance entering the first year of ILEARN. First, Spanish translations & glossaries – new features for ILEARN – and their impact on ELs and fluent bilingual students are addressed. Also included is new guidance on bilingual dictionaries, which now allows for more flexibility on which can be utilized. This guidance is located on pages 38-41 in the updated Accessibility and Accommodations document.
Maria Montiero
Halloween
Hispanic Heritage Month
This emphasizes one of WIDA's Guiding Principles that students’ languages and cultures are valuable resources to be tapped and incorporated into schooling.
District EL Coaches
Email: gmayorga@perryschools.org
Twitter: @gschneidercoach
JJ Tidd
Email: jtidd@perryschools.org
Twitter: @JJTidd
Website: www.perryschools.org/ell/
Location: 6548 Orinoco Avenue, Indianapolis, IN, USA
Phone: 317-789-3783