Beyond Fronteras
A Celebration of our ESC1 Bilingual Community: February 2021
On the Spotlight
Happy February! It has been almost a year since we started this new remote learning adventure together! Through ups and downs we have managed to stay not only afloat, but together we have learned new and exciting ways to continue providing the best educational opportunities for our English Learners and ALL our students! Life has taught us that the little things truly matter, but we have also learned how powerful grace can be when we shared with others... and with ourselves! Keep at it, amigos, we continue to be in this together!
Regardless of all the challenges we have faced, we have so many things to celebrate and highlight, especially the wonderful accomplishments reached by our students and educators! We hope you felt #RegionOnePride when you saw our wonderful Mariachi Nuevo Santander from Roma ISD as part of the official line up of inauguration events in honor of President Biden and Vice-President Harris! ¡Enhorabuena muchachos!
Mil felicidades también para Ashley Treviño, for being crowned as the 2020 "Best in the U.S. National Vocal Grand Champion" at the 26th Annual Mariachi Vargas Extravaganza"! Ashley exemplifies our students passion, tenacity, talent, and dedication! Thank you for being such a great role model and for proudly representing our incredible border region!
Thank you all administrators, teachers, paraprofessionals, support staff, students, families, and community members who make this the best region to live and to study, not only in Texas, but in the whole nation! ¡Qué sigan los éxitos!
¡Mil gracias y esperamos que disfruten este boletín!
KChapa :)
Virtual Learning Tips, by Claudia Coronado
If you need a tool to share notes during a Zoom class session, you may use the integrated whiteboard. Zoom’s annotation tools can help teachers keep their class sessions active and engaging to students. Creating a whiteboard is easy! When you click on the Share button, click on the whiteboard option. This will create and share a whiteboard to all students in your zoom session.
Teaching Strategies
Use as a brainstorming tool to collect student ideas.
Use as a graphic organizer for whole class practice or formative assessment.
Use as an annotation tool for students to demonstrate their thinking in writing.
Use as a collaborative tool for students to pair annotations and be creative.
Multicultural Book Spotlight, by Dr. Lileana Ríos-Ledezma
This incredibly written and illustrated book, Dreamers, by Yuyi Morales (her first name is pronounced “ZHOO-zhee”) captivates readers with her own immigration story and initial experiences in a strange new land. Morales expresses true vulnerability, feeling alone and invisible, after her migration to the U.S. from Xalapa, Mexico through strategic use of poetic language and breathtaking art.
Then one day she describes something miraculous that occurs when she wanders into a library. Unbelievable. Surprising. Unimaginable. There she and her son, Kelly, find access to wondrous worlds, a path and a purpose through the pages of the books...soñadores of the world.
This book is an excellent mentor text for our students. It’s positive impact is sure to encourage students to make connections, build sociocultural competence, and tell their own stories of their own journey, their own experiences. Follow this link to access an article where ESL teacher, Astrid Emily Francis uses Dreamers to unpack culture and validate students’ identity all while incorporating essential language domains: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Happy reading!
~ ESL CORNER ~
QSSSA, by Claudia Coronado
As part of the language development of English Learners, it is crucial to embed language instruction throughout the day, not just in isolation. For this reason, academic conversations are essential to helping students develop a deep understanding of content and language at the same time. We need to provide scaffolds and structures that will engage and challenge our students to have these important conversations. QS3A is a method for structuring conversations that can be used in any grade level or content area to engage students in academic conversations.
Q (Question): The teacher asks a question.
S (Signal): The students give the teacher a response (determined by the teacher) when they are ready to answer.
S (Stem): The teacher provides a sentence stem to frame structure language.
S (Share): Students are asked to share their responses with one or more peers.
A (Assess): The teacher assesses the quality of discussion by selecting a few students to share their answers with the whole class.
Thank you @ValentinaESL and the whole @Seidlitz_Ed team for this awesome strategy and visual!
~ LA ESQUINA BILINGÜE ~
Tips for Bilingual Teachers, by Niranda Flores
Let’s continue with TELPAS! In an effort to help you continue supporting your English learners, below is a simple routine addressing Listening that you can easily incorporate into your classroom. Keep in mind that listening is a receptive language skill that is needed to generate a response under Speaking.
Listening: And The Outcome Is…
One of the best ways to get your students to listen carefully is to make them unaware that it’s a listening task and instead have them think they are simply taking a brain break and drawing. First, select a picture which you will use to give the drawing instructions. Next, get creative and give every student a place where they can draw such as a paper plate/bag or a piece of butcher paper. Anything else other than a piece of paper. Now, give one drawing instruction at a time such as draw a large triangle at the center of your paper. Because this activity has a listening focus, instructions will only be given once. Then, give a second drawing instruction such as draw several circles inside the triangle. After all drawing instructions have been given, ask students to hold up their paper and guess the outcome before comparing it to the original picture. Students will see that every picture is different and some even very far from the original one. In this case, we were in the process of creating a simple Christmas tree. Want to raise the level of accountability? Have students work in groups and ask them to pass their paper to the next student after each drawing instruction. Please keep in mind that visuals and drawing instructions should be in accordance to the language level of your students. HAVE FUN!
~ SELF-CARE CORNER ~
Because CARING begins with YOU! By Niranda Flores
Feeling fatigued lately? As you approach the midway point of second semester, do your very best to avoid the following common lifestyle habits which according to an article published in Harvard Health Publishing may be the cause of you feeling drained:
Isolation: under our current situation, physically connecting with others is something that we have been advised not to do. However, that does not mean we can’t connect virtually. Schedule virtual connections, not work related, with your family members and/or friends at least once a week. Interacting with others has been scientifically proven to increase our levels of happy hormones and give us more energy.
Low fluid intake: dehydration is a common cause of feeling fatigue so reflect over your choices of fluid intake, and if needed, increase the amount of water you are drinking. The Institute of Medicine recommends that males drink 101 ounces of water per day and females 74 ounces of water per day.
Processed foods: nourishing your body with vitamins and minerals will increase the production of ATP, otherwise known as the molecule that carries energy to your cells. On the contrary, high levels of processed foods can cause your body to decrease the production of ATP which will in turn cause you to feel more tired.
Few hours of sleep: lack of sleep increases your level of cortisol, the primary stress hormone, which results in your body feeling fatigued. If possible, establish a sleeping schedule by going to bed and waking up at the same time everyday, as well as create a suitable sleeping environment free of noise and electronics.
Summer vacation will be here sooner than expected, in the meantime, protect your energy and remember to TAKE CARE OF YOU!
¿Sabías que...?
Culture Objectives, por Lileana Ríos-Ledezma, PhD
You may have heard of content objectives...maybe even language objectives, but in a recent RGV-TABE conference, Dr. José Medina highlighted the need to incorporate culture objectives into our lesson plans and essentially into our classrooms. A culture objective, he expounds, is necessary to build sociocultural competence, connect the content to students’ prior knowledge and experiences, as well create frames of reference that positively shed light on diverse cultures. While understanding another culture is a continuous, dynamic process, Medina suggests four ways teachers can write a culture learning objective to enhance cultural proficiency in our learners:
Promote the importance of seeing similarities and differences in others. This can be achieved by celebrating individuals and communities that are marginalized by society and highlight their relevant contribution to the content.
Connect to the child and/or the real world. Ask questions that stimulate students to think about how the content-specific topic is represented in their OWN lives in the world outside of school.
Encourage cross-linguistic connections and translanguaging. We must strongly advocate for students to mobilize their entire linguistic repertoire: English and Spanish, or Spanglish. Conversations may begin in Korean, move to English in the middle, and then back to Korean. Students benefit when they translanguage because it provides an opportunity to engage authentically with the content and develop metalinguistic skills.
Present social and academic language as equals. As students use various forms of social and academic languages, we must guide them to understand the context for each. Culture learning objectives work to actively destroy the hierarchy between the two and value all language; including cultural dialects.
Thank you @JoseMedinaJr89 for such fantastic insight!
~ BILINGUAL DIRECTORS CORNER ~
¡Feliz mes de la amistad!
Just looking at these pictures helped me realize that yes, most definitely, in Region One #WeAreStrongerTogether! We have found our tribe, our family, nuestros amigos, compadres y comadres... and that, my friends, is exactly what makes us special! ¡Mil gracias por su amistad! Happy Valentine's Day 2021!
Here is my Valentine's present to you. A poem I wrote when I was in first grade. Yes, I still remember it ;) Now more than ever I can attest that it is 100% true! With your friendship, everything is possible!
El amor y la amistad,
son bonitos en verdad,
cuando todo el mundo ama,
todo se hace realidad.
-Karina Zuno, 6 años
Thank you for helping our 160,000 bilingual learners turn their dreams into reality! Virtual hugs everyone! Take care and stay safe!
Mil gracias,
KChapa :)
EL Program Implementation Institutes
Come join us for a FREE series of sessions on how to utilize the EL Program Implementation Resources created by the Texas Education Agency to improve your transitional bilingual, dual language, and ESL program models! Just choose your program model and register today!
WS# 172063 Transitional Bilingual
WS# 171962 Dual Language
WS# 172169 ESL
Call for English Learner Methods
Title III Courses Now Available at ESC1
Title III: Effective Early Childhood Instruction for the Young EL
FREE! Online ESL Certification Training
TEA Assessment TETN and Webinars
Access Now: Project Restore
~ UPCOMING EVENTS ~
- Positive Character Traits (TEKS): January-May 2021
- Serving Twice Exceptional Students (GT Focus): 02/10/21
- EL Program Implementation Institutes: February 2021
- Bilingual Directors Meeting: 02/26/21
- Title III Course: Effective Early Childhood Instruction for the Young EL: 03/9&11/21
- SAVE THE DATE! 6th Annual Effective Border Schools Conference: May 31-June 1
- Supporting Emergent Bilingual Students with Disabilities: 08/03/21
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