curriculum investigation #2
TRANSCRIPT
Curricular Investigation #2
Topics:
★ How does your school/district screen all students enrolling in the school/district to identify those students who are potential ELL students?
★ Identify the criteria your distinct/school uses to classify a student as a potential ELL student.
Lindsay Lyons, Pamela Cacciani, Danielle Conguista,
Samantha Cosenza, and Susan Ortiz
School/District Screening Process of Potential ELLs
At Edith L. Slocum Elementary School in the Connetquot School District ENL teacher (ONLY) screens all students who are potential ELLs by using the NYSITELL exam.
This exam is given ONLY when "another language spoken at home" is checked off on the "Home Language Survey" when registering with the district as a new student.
Pamela Cacciani
Criteria used by school/district to classify potential ELLs
Classification is based on the score the student receives on the NYSITELL.
There are 5 levels of proficiency; Entering, Emerging, Transitioning, Expanding, and Commanding.
If the student scores at the highest level, "Commanding" - they do not need to receive ENL services because they have tested out.
If the student scores anything below commanding, then they will receive either 1 push-in, or 2 periods (which consist of 1 pull-out and 1 push-in) of ENL a day based on their score.
Pamela Cacciani
Annual Review with Parents/Guardians-In addition to parent-teacher conferences or other scheduled meetings for all parents, an annual meeting with parents/guardians of each ELL must be held to discuss the goals of the ENL program, the student’s language development progress, English language proficiency assessment results, and language development needs in all content areas.
-All school staff necessary to sufficiently inform the parents or persons in parental relation about the child’s language development in all content areas in English must attend this meeting including ENL teacher, Student’s English/ELA teacher, special education teacher, (if applicable) and Support services staff, (if applicable)
Danielle Congiusta
School/District Screening Process of Potential ELLs (Initial
Evaluation/Classification Process)
East Meadow School District★ Students who speak another language at home and/or have recently arrived from a foreign
country are administered the New York State Identification Test for English Language Learners (NYSITELL) upon initial enrollment within the district. The NYSITELL is administered once, and only once! The test is administered when the parent(s) indicate on their Home Language Survey that they use a primary language other than English at home.
★ NYSITELL evaluates English proficiency based on the four language domains: speaking, reading, writing, and listening. Often, writing is the most challenging because it requires formatting cognitive processes and organizing language before writing.
★ NYSITELL results help ENL teachers analyze the results to determine appropriate program placement, in regards to students’ needs for ENL services of English language support of the domains.
NYSITELL & HOME LANGUAGE SURVEY SAMPLES ARE PROVIDED IN SLIDES BELOW.
Lindsay Lyons
NYSESLAT Significance and Criteria, After Initial Determination with the
NYSITELL
East Meadow School District★ Each following year, ENL students are assessed around the month of May by ENL teachers
administering the New York State English as a Second Language Achievement Test (NYSESLAT). The NYSESLAT assesses students’ progress throughout the ENL curriculum instruction and learning process. The NYSESLAT covers the four criteria of the English language: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Again, writing is usually the most challenging for ENL students because it requires other domains to formulate language and organize sentences.
★ NYSESLAT results are analyzed to help ENL teachers determine the aspects of continuation of ENL services and needs for increased or decreased support for the following school year.
★ As ENL students progress throughout the ENL program, they gradually move through stages, based on English proficiency and results from the NYSESLAT each year. The five stages are indicated in the following two slides:
Lindsay Lyons
ENL Proficiency Levels/Services from the NYS Department of Education
Lindsay Lyons
ENL Proficiency Levels/Services from the NYS Department of Education
Lindsay Lyons
Sample “Home Language Survey”
Pamela Cacciani
Sample “Follow Up” Letter to inform Parents/ Guardians of English Language Proficiency level Danielle Congiusta
Home Language Survey Flow
Chart
Susan Ortiz
Example of NYSITELL Level 1 Answer Sheet
Pamela Cacciani
NYSITELL Question Types
Danielle Congiusta
Sample of Questions Given on NYSITELL
Danielle Congiusta
Listening Sample Question Given on
NYSITELL
Danielle Congiusta
Sample of NYSITELL Raw Score Conversion Chart
Pamela Cacciani
Now that you gained a little perspective on our districts’/schools’ criteria and process for identifying potential ENL students and monitoring progress of current ENL students, take a look at some instructional strategies for supporting ENL students in your future instruction. Simple instructional approaches may yield positive impacts on your students’ confidence and growth in using the English language.
Extension of Curriculum Investigation:
Lindsay Lyons
“One of the greatest concerns in classrooms today is related to
accommodations for our students and doing what the district/school curriculum
programs requires of educators.
Lindsay Lyons & Danielle Conguista
Commercial programs are very structured, so educators must find ways to adapt their existing curriculum in ways to remain “Fidelity to the Core” yet better address the needs of ELL students.
Fidelity to the Core
Lindsay Lyons & Danielle Conguista
Fidelity and the Culturally & Linguistically Diverse (CLD) Learner
🔸When educators believe that “one size does not fit all”, this examination becomes part of the advocacy effort they undertake to ensure equal access for all.
🔸 Understanding the four dimensions of the student biography, the implications they have on practice, and what the research reveals about each enables teachers to advocate for what is right for ELL students.
🔸 Such knowledge also enables teachers to discuss what “fidelity to the core” was intended to mean.
Lindsay Lyons & Danielle Conguista
Biographies to Understand ENL Students and Yield Confident
LearnersBy using the CLD
student biography, teachers can then continue with their
acquisition of fundamental and research-based
components of literacy to better their ELL
students.
Biographies can be embedded in the current standards- and program-driven mandates of today’s classrooms. Using the strategies such as Standard-Driven Literacy Instruction and knowledge of Sociocultural, linguistic, cognitive, and academic
Teaching the required curriculum naturally requires teachers to contextualize their instruction based on the population they are serving during any particular year. Students’ biographies dicate the accommodations educators make to the scripted reading programs found in classrooms today.
Lindsay Lyons & Danielle Conguista
Lindsay Lyons & Danielle Conguista
Biography Graphic Organizers:Intermediate Level Primary
Level
Standards for English Language Arts assume that literacy growth begins before children enter school.
“Adaptability and creativity are far more effective in the classroom, than thoroughgoing applications of a single approach.”
Lindsay Lyons & Danielle Conguista
ENL STANDARDS/GOALS/LEARNING TARGETS
Goal 1: To use English to communicate in social settings.
Goal 3: To use English to achieve academically in all content areas.
(obtain, process, construct content in spoken and written form)Goal 2:
To use English in socially and culturally appropriate ways.
(audience, purpose, setting)
Lindsay Lyons & Danielle Conguista
Sociocultural Knowledge
Linguistic Knowledge
Cognitive Knowledge
AcademicKnowledge
Effective Teaching
● Scaffold● Strategies● Key
vocabulary
● Building academic skills● Variety of literacy
activities● Wide range of literature
● Understanding CLD students’ first language literacy development promotes a positive impact in second language acquisition
● Multicultural & Multilingual Tasks/Activities promotes motivation & positive diverse identify
Lindsay Lyons & Danielle Conguista
ELL Students Face Unique Challenges
🔸 English Language Learners (ELLs) are the fastest growing segment of the public school population.
🔸 Over the past 15 years, the number of ELL students has nearly doubled—to about 5 million.
🔸 By 2015, ELL enrollment in U.S. schools will reach 10 million and, by 2025, nearly one out of every four public school students will be an English Language Learner
🔸 Accurately assessing these students in English—required by the law—is challenging.
🔸 ELLs are expected to master content in English before they have reached a certain level of English proficiency.
Susan Ortiz
Issues Facing Teachers of English Language Learners
🔸 ELL students come from very different backgrounds and often face multiple challenges in the classroom.
🔸 To complicate matters further, teachers lack practical, research-based information, resources, and strategies needed to teach, evaluate, and nurture ELL students, whether those students were born in this country or elsewhere, or whether they are the first, second, or third generation to attend an American public school.
🔸 In too many cases, ELL students are being given reading and math tests in English before they are proficient in the language.
Susan Ortiz
Five Things Teachers Can Do to Improve Learning for ELLs
🔸 1. Increase ELL students' English language production and peer interaction-If activities are structured to support student-to-student or group interaction, ELLs are required to use English to explain concepts and contribute to the work. This gives teachers an opportunity to gauge what the student has learned, and it demonstrates student progress in English language development.
🔸 Explicitly teach English language vocabulary and structures-Content teachers can begin by reviewing a content area lesson and identifying not just the vocabulary that every student needs to know, but other vocabulary words and grammar structures that ELL students may not be familiar with.
🔸 Build on ELLs' Background Knowledge to Increase Comprehension-Teachers can work creatively to elicit background knowledge from students on content topics in order to increase comprehension of the material. This may be as simple as taking the time to do a "K/W/L" (Know, Want to Know, Learned) chart, or as individualized as asking questions about the topic.
Susan Ortiz
Five Things Teachers Can Do to Improve Learning for ELLs Continued...
🔸 Increase ELL Parent Involvement-Regular, open and friendly communication from the teacher can make a big difference in ELL parent participation. It can feel daunting for an English speaking teacher to call a non-English speaking parent, but usually there is someone in the family who speaks enough English to interpret the message for the parent, or the parent speaks enough English to understand a simple message. ELL parents will be very pleased and excited to hear positive news about their child and will feel more comfortable asking questions and visiting the school in the future. The more informed the parents are, the more likely it is that the student will get support at home and parents will have the information they need to help their child be successful.
🔸 Increase Writing Opportunities-For ELLs this is particularly important. Depending on their writing skill level in their first language and their English language abilities, writing may be frustrating. Students need to engage in a variety of writing to develop an understanding of different types of writing and to identify their strengths and weaknesses as a writer.
Susan Ortiz
Improving ELL Students Vocabulary
ELL Students VocabularyBuilderers:
Susan Ortiz
Working with Community Organizations to Support ELL Students
Services and support:
The leaders and staff of community organizations may also have many ideas about how schools, businesses, and other groups can work together to support ELL students and their families by offering:After-school tutoring, Student internships, Medical services, Social services, Clothing/food drives, ESL classes for adults, Continuing education programs, Immigration information, Citizenship classes. Susan Ortiz
Hot Links
🔸 Coalition for Community Schools
The Coalition for Community Schools, housed at the Institute for Educational Leadership, is an alliance of national, state and local organizations in education K-16, youth development, community planning and development, family support, health and human services, government and philanthropy as well as national, state and local community school networks.
🔸 Partnership for Afterschool Education
The Partnership for After-School Education (PASE), a New York City-focused organization, promotes and supports quality afterschool programs for youth, particularly those from underserved communities, enabling them to identify and reach their full potential.
Susan Ortiz
In Conclusion...By giving children the tools they need to decode and comprehend text, teachers have the power to shape
students’ lives, help them fulfill their dreams, and open up a world of opportunities. To reach the same level of academic achievement as their monolingual English-
speaking peers, ELL students need to be active members of their academic world, not just passive observers. Teachers can help make this possible. Teachers must
break the habit of embedded daily instruction and reflect on new ways to modify instruction for meeting the
specific sociocultural, linguistic, academic, and cognitive needs of their ELL students.
Lindsay Lyons & Danielle Conguista
“It is the celebration of the students’ diversity that teachers provide them with the tools necessary not only to successfully acquire English literacy skills but also to take charge of what
lies in their future.”Lindsay Lyons & Danielle Conguista
Essential Questions to Peers:
1.How can administrators support teachers of ELL students?
2.What is the definition of a Limited English Proficient (LEP) student?
3.Is the initial process of determining if incoming students require ENL services reliable and fair?
4.What strategies or approaches can you utilize to address each ENL student’s unique needs and proficiency level, in order for them to achieve optimal success on the yearly NYSESLAT?