Deb Drescher Warren County Public Schools

Warren County Public Schools’ Title III (ELL) program is now in school improvement status and has identified three goals to address the instructional needs of our ELL students.  One goal is our school division will increase LEP student achievement in reading by improving the ELL pass rate on the SOL Reading/Language Arts tests for grades 3-11.

 Professional development plan:  Help our reading and English teachers increase academic vocabulary and incorporate it with writing skills for all ELL students  Provide opportunities to learn effective, research-based strategies for teaching English Language Learners

 What levels of service are the English Language Learning students in your classroom receiving and how do you know they are making progress?

 Instruction of the five big ideas from the report from the National Reading Panel: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension.  Oral fluency in English is associated with comprehension and writing skills.  Oral fluency in the first language can be used to facilitate literacy development in English.

 Individual differences contribute significantly to English literacy development.  Adequate assessments are essential for gauging individual strengths and weaknesses.  Home language experiences can have a positive impact on literacy achievement. August, Diane & Shanahan, Timothy (2006) Developing Literacy in Second Language Learners: Report of the National Reading Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth, Laurence Irbaum Associates, 2006.

 What percentage of time during a one hour lesson do you think students are doing the talking your classroom?  How do you think oral proficiency in English is associated with English comprehension and writing skills?

 Enhance academic language by:  Introducing new basic academic subject-specific vocabulary.  Structure multiple opportunities for peer-to-peer interaction.  Increase speaking, listening, reading comprehension and writing skills.  Support language interactions with review/preview of academic language Bongolan, Rain S., Moir, Ellen (2005) Accelerating Academic Language Development Six Key Strategies for Teachers of English Language Learners, New Teacher Santa Cruz.

 Evaluating English language learning is vital to a student’s acquisition of both social and academic vocabulary.  The English Learning Progress Rubric will be used at the beginning of the school year, mid-year, and at the end of the school year.  Each Limited English Student will be assessed using this rubric.

 Progress will also be monitored through:  County-wide reading or English benchmark assessments  County-wide writing assessments  Final proof of academic progress is the Virginia Standards of Learning Assessment Professional Development  Professional development will be guided through the Survey for Instructional Practices for ELL Teachers.

 The professional development plan is to:  Help our reading and English teachers increase academic vocabulary and incorporate it with writing skills for all ELL students  Provide opportunities to learn effective, research-based strategies for teaching English Language Learners  This presentation is just the beginning of this process.  Our professional development goal is our school division will increase LEP student achievement in reading by improving the ELL pass rate on the SOL Reading/Language Arts tests for grades Thank-you for your participation and commitment to help our ELL students learn and achieve.