PROGRAMS AND SERVICES TO ELL Students

District One Schools Special Services Department

Major goals of the ELL Program

    Identify and assess all students whose home language is other than English.

Develop skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing English.

Help multilingual students function comparably with English-speaking peers after the appropriate level of assistance.

To support the instruction of the regular classroom as appropriate to the development of the student.

Objectives

   Provide staff development and training to mainstream teachers Discontinue service when a student is achieving Monitor student achievement

What the ELL Program Is Not

A glorified tutoring and homework program The main way that ELL students are instructed The answer to all your problems with students who do not speak English!

What the Program Does

   Teach children who do not speak English to speak the language.

Assist them with academic help Advocate for Ell children and their families

Enrollment Procedures and the Law

     They do not have to have a social security card to be enrolled in school.

They do have to meet district residency requirements.

A birth certificate may be asked for when initially enrolled in kindergarten or first grade. A US birth certificate is not necessary. It may be in the native language. A birth certificate is not necessary once the student has already been in school, even in another country.

They do have to have immunization forms like everyone else but DHEC allows a 30 day waiver.

They cannot be denied enrollment due to lack of proof of immigration status. We are not to request that of parents.

An ELL student is one who:

    First learned another language in the home Used by the student in the home Or used by the student with friends outside the home.

This is determined by the Home Language Survey and further assessment by the ESOL teacher

How are students assessed?

   Students are administered the IPT reading proficiency test.

Students are administered ELDA in spring The results of these tests determine a student’s classification on a scale of 0-5— no English at all to proficient.

What determines SERVICE?

    There are no hard rules as to how long or how much a student must be served.

A determination is made based on IPT, ELDA, PACT, MAP, teacher assessments .

This should be a TEAM discussion with the ESOL teacher and the classroom teachers.

The most needy students get the most time.

 Some students can be served other ways: Reading recovery, small groups.

If they can be taught better in the classroom, then they should not be pulled out.

Service Models in District One

    Pull out class with a small group of children or one on one “Push-in” where the ESOL teacher comes in the classroom much like inclusion Class period—middle school and high school RTI—response to intervention: reading recovery, speech, resource, other

Modifying and Accommodating Instruction for ELL Students

    By law, the classroom teacher should modify instruction and assignments to meet the language and academic needs of ELL students.

Grades should reflect these modifications.

An ELL student should not receive a grade of F if the failure is due to language. Teachers must take into consideration language barriers of the FAMILY when grading (homework, projects, reading assignments) Modifications on state testing must be a general practice in the classroom

ELDA Scores and Service

   Four areas assessed: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and comprehension Scores: 1=pre-functional 2=beginner 3=intermediate 4=advanced 5=full English Proficient Levels 1-4 receive ESOL services. Level 5 receives limited services from ESOL teacher or mainstream teacher.

Placement of ELL Students

 Initial grade placement should be with same age classmates. (Don’t put a 12 year old in 3 rd grade just because he can’t read English)

 Students must score 5 on ELDA for 2 consecutive years and proficient once on PACT in ELA and Math in order to exit the program. Exited students must be monitored for academic progress.

Access to All Programs

 ESOL students must have access to all programs in the district including special education services and gifted and talented programs. Students should be given every opportunity to participate in sports, related arts, fine arts classes, and any other program that students have access to. This is the law.

Waivers for Service

 A parent has the right to “waive” service from the ESOL teacher in a specific program. However, the ESOL teacher must “monitor” the student’s progress and notify parents if the student is not making progress. The student must also take ELDA and all other state assessments.

Resources

    The Wire=Departments=Curriculum=English Language Program. Look here for forms, District handbook.

State Department of Education Title III page http://www.usingenglish.com

Interpreter—call Dr. Beason for help with this

FINALLY

    COMMUNICATION IS THE KEY COMMUNICATION BETWEEN OFFICE AND GUIDANCE COUNSELORS WITH ESOL TEACHER COMMUNICATION AMONG REGULAR ED TEACHER AND ESOL TEACHER COMMUNICATION BETWEEN SCHOOL AND HOME