1. ESL INFORMATIONAL MEETING Created by:
ESL INFORMATIONAL MEETING Created by: Stefanie Bowen – BHS Starr Lara - WMS

2. Please sign in. Pick up three handouts and a highlighter.

3. Essential Question:
How do I know If I have an ELL student in class, and how can I best support him/her?

4. Campus Procedures and ACRONYMS
Identifying ELL students
Determining English language proficiency levels
ESL – English as a Second Language
ESOL – English for Speakers of Other Languages
LEP – Limited English Proficiency
ELL – English Language Learner
TELPAS – Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System*
ELPS – English Language Proficiency Standards*
I think we are all familiar with the many challenges English Language Learners face, so before we discuss the strategies we can use to support them, I want to go over some of the logistical procedures for working with ELLs on our campus.
Identifying ELL students in your classes is obviously the first step toward providing them with the support they need. The best way for you to do that is to look at your attendance screen in Skyward.

5. Identifying ELL students in Skyward Look for the “L”
Just as you see an H for health concerns, a 5 for 504, an S for special education etc., you will see a teal “L” to represent Limited English Proficiency. It is so important that you identify ELL students in your classes as soon as possible, and it is also important that you remember to check any time a new student joins your class throughout the year, just as you check for health concerns, special ed, and It is your responsibility to be aware of the English Language Learners in your classes.
Once you identify an ELL student in your class, the next step will probably be to assess their proficiency levels to adjust your expectations of how well they will be able to communicate in English. Remember that you may have beginners, intermediate, advanced, or advanced high. You can find this information in Eduphoria. Just as you would access STAAR EOC results, you can access the students’ TELPAS ratings, which tell you the students’ proficiency levels in the four domains of language: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

6. DETERMINING LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY LEVELS IN EDUPHORIA 1=B 2=I 3=A 4=AH
Once you are viewing a particular student in Eduphoria, you will click on the Tests and Scores tab and scroll all the way to the bottom to find TELPAS scores. A large portion of our ELL population on campus are longterm ELLs who have reached advanced or advanced high levels of English proficiency. In some cases, the only reason they have not exited from the ESL program is because they have not passed their STAAR EOC exams. You can see the years that the student has been enrolled in school in the U.S. (which is not always completely accurate). Then you can see their score on each domain, ranging from 1 to is considered Beginner, 2 is Intermediate, 3 is Advanced, and 4 is Advanced High. This student has reached and Advanced level in all domains and has been in the U.S. for over 3 years.
However, we also have newcomers and beginners on campus. Newcomers will not have TELPAS ratings, as they will not test until this coming spring. If you have questions about a newcomer’s proficiency level, feel free to contact me and I can help you determine that.
Before we move on, does anyone have any questions about what we’ve gone over so far about how to access information about your ELL students?

7. Academic Listening Sample What Might a Beginning Listener Understand?
Good morning, class. Today we are going to study something brand new. It’s difficult, so I’m going to need everyone’s undivided attention. Open your books to page one hundred seventy-two. At the top of the page is the word “net.” Today’s lesson is about net. As it says in the definition in your book, in math, net is a two-dimensional model. The net of a cylinder is shown in your textbook. Does everyone see the rectangle and two circles? That’s the net of the cylinder.
These next slides show an example of speech that is academic in nature. As with the previous slides, it should be assumed that the teacher is talking to a class without making linguistic accommodations designed for ELLs. These slides provide additional examples of what is meant by the second bullet of the PLDs for listening.
This sample shows speech that a student might hear in a math classroom. In teaching students, teachers frequently give certain repeated, highly routine instructions (e.g., open your books to page). Beginning listeners hear such instructions regularly and begin to memorize phrases, even without understanding each of the individual words. Beginning level students also acquire some academic vocabulary that they hear daily in highly predictable contexts.
TEA

8. In Other Words
Good morning … Today … Open your books to page one … top … page … Today’s … book … math … two … book … rectangle … two circles …
As shown in this example, the student understands some high-frequency academic words (one, two, rectangle, circles). The understanding of such words in spoken messages is affected by how fast the person is speaking and the emphasis given to the words.
In the example above, a beginning level student accustomed to using a textbook in math class may memorize the phrase “Open your books to page…,” but the student is likely still struggling to learn English words for numbers. When the teacher says “page one hundred seventy-two” at normal speed, the student may hear or understand only part of the number and, therefore, not turn to the correct page in the book.
TEA

9. Academic Listening Sample What Might an Intermediate Listener Understand?
Good morning, class. Today we are going to study something brand new. It’s difficult, so I’m going to need everyone’s undivided attention. Open your books to page one hundred seventy-two. At the top of the page is the word “net.” Today’s lesson is about net. As it says in the definition in your book, in math, net is a two-dimensional model. The net of a cylinder is shown in your textbook. Does everyone see the rectangle and two circles? That’s the net of the cylinder.
An intermediate listener understands more of the routine instructions heard daily in the classroom (today we are going to study, top of the page, today’s lesson) and makes sense of longer segments of speech. While students at this level are usually able to get the general meaning (gist) of routine, nonacademically complex interactions, they struggle to understand academic lessons that have not been linguistically modified.
TEA

10. In Other Words
Good morning, class. Today we are going to study … It’s difficult … going to need everyone’s … Open your books to page one hundred … top of the page … Today’s lesson … your book, in math … two … cylinder … book … rectangle and two circles … cylinder.
This intermediate level student hears and understands familiar content area words such as cylinder, rectangles, and circles. However, the teacher is attempting to teach students about the net of a cylinder. Because this lesson has not been linguistically modified, the student does not understand enough of what the teacher is saying to grasp the idea that the lesson is about a new concept called net.
Note also that even students at the intermediate level struggle to understand strings of numbers (one hundred seventy-two) spoken at normal speed.
TEA

11. Academic Listening Sample What Might an Advanced Listener Understand?
Good morning, class. Today we are going to study something brand new. It’s difficult, so I’m going to need everyone’s undivided attention. Open your books to page one hundred seventy-two. At the top of the page is the word “net.” Today’s lesson is about net. As it says in the definition in your book, in math, net is a two-dimensional model. The net of a cylinder is shown in your textbook. Does everyone see the rectangle and two circles? That’s the net of the cylinder.
Advanced level listeners have acquired enough English to understand the English used in discussing familiar academic topics and some unfamiliar topics. This helps them gain more meaning when they learn new academic concepts. However, advanced level listeners need ongoing linguistic support to (1) ensure that they are understanding correctly and (2) to add new vocabulary words (net, two-dimensional model) to their receptive vocabulary.
TEA

12. In Other Words
Good morning, class. Today we are going to study something … new. It’s difficult, so I’m going to need everyone’s … Open your books to page one hundred seventy-two. At the top of the page is the word … Today’s lesson is … definition in your book, in math, net is a two … a cylinder is … in your textbook. Does everyone see the rectangle and two circles? … cylinder.
Because the teacher’s lesson is not linguistically accommodated through the use of gestures and verbal cues, this advanced level student still misses important information. The student gets to the right page and sees the definition of the word net but can’t distinguish the word in the teacher’s speech as the teacher continues talking about it. The student also does not understand “dimensional model,” which is key to the understanding of net.
TEA

13. Academic Listening Sample What Might an Advanced High Listener Understand?
Good morning, class. Today we are going to study something brand new. It’s difficult, so I’m going to need everyone’s undivided attention. Open your books to page one hundred seventy-two. At the top of the page is the word “net.” Today’s lesson is about net. As it says in the definition in your book, in math, net is a two-dimensional model. The net of a cylinder is shown in your textbook. Does everyone see the rectangle and two circles? That’s the net of the cylinder.
The level of linguistic understanding of the advanced high listener is similar, with minimal second language acquisition support, to the linguistic understanding of native English-speaking peers.
This student is able to understand almost all of what the teacher said in the introduction to this lesson. The student does not understand the expression “undivided attention” but still understands the point of the sentence.
The student doesn’t understand the word “net” in one of the sentences because the teacher says it too quickly. However, the student still captures enough to get an overall understanding of this part of the lesson.
For further information about how to rate the listening proficiency of ELLs, refer to Chapter 3 of the Educator Guide to TELPAS. Links to several student video clips are included to illustrate how to use the listening PLDs in ongoing instruction and to assess K–12 students for TELPAS.
TEA

14. Sheltered instruction benefits everybody
Sheltered instruction benefits everybody. Linguistic accommodations are for individual students.
In order to help develop students’ academic language to communicate what they understand, you may also need to provide linguistic accommodations.
Remember that sheltered instruction is all about providing language acquisition opportunities by teaching the content. This benefits everybody, regardless of their proficiency level, even your non-ELL students.
Linguistic Accommodations, however, are for specific students.

15. Accommodating Lessons
What is a linguistic accommodation?
Targeted use of language strategies to prompt, build, clarify and extend student language.
How do I linguistically accommodate my lessons?
See EMS ISD’s “Appendix D: Sheltered Instruction Strategies”
Lesson Design + Interactive Instructional Strategies + Language Support Strategies =
Good Instruction for ELLs.
Linguistic accommodations are provided for individual students based on their proficiency levels, just like you might have accommodations for 504 students. For example, in one of my classes I had a structured conversation where students had to write out their responses before sharing them with a partner. This is an example of sheltered instruction because it is supporting students’ development of writing and speaking abilities by using the content. However, I had a student who was a beginner in speaking and writing, so I provided her with sentence stems to help her write out her response before sharing it with a partner. In this case, the use of sentence stems was a linguistic accommodation to support the student’s language in order to access the content.

16. ACCOMMODATIONS - LISTENING
BEGINNER
INTERMEDIATE
ADVANCED
ADVANCED HIGH
Native language support
Gestures
Visual cues
Visual and verbal cues
Opportunities to request clarification
Processing time and verbal cues for unfamiliar conversations
Repetition and rephrasing
Extra wait time when academic material is complex and unfamiliar
Visuals and verbal cues when material is complex and unfamiliar
The way you determine accommodations is based on the students’ proficiency levels in each domain.

17. ACCOMMODATIONS - SPEAKING
BEGINNER
INTERMEDIATE
ADVANCED
ADVANCED HIGH
Native language
Words and simple phrases
Allow some nonparticipation
Model pronunciation of social and academic terms
Provide phrases or simple sentence frames
Allow extra processing time
Model pronunciation of academic terms
Extra wait time
Provide sentence stems for complex grammar and abstract terms
Provide sentence stems with complex grammar and vocabulary and with content-based abstract terms

18. ACCOMMODATIONS - READING
BEGINNER
INTERMEDIATE
ADVANCED
ADVANCED HIGH
Use adapted text
Practice high frequency, concrete terms
Use visual supports
Organize reading in chunks
Pre-teach vocabulary
Visual and linguistic supports, including adapted text, for unfamiliar topics
Provide minimal visual and linguistic supports

19. ACCOMMODATIONS - WRITING
BEGINNER
INTERMEDIATE
ADVANCED
ADVANCED HIGH
Allow drawing and use of native language
Allow students to use high frequency short, simple phrases
Provide short sentence stems with present tense and key vocabulary
Allow writing on familiar, concrete topics
Avoid assessment of language errors
Provide simple sentence stems
Provide complex grade-level appropriate writing tasks
Allow writing about abstract concepts with minimal linguistic support
Provide complex sentence stems as scaffolds

20. English Language Arts
Learning Task: Use a graphic organizer to describe the following terms for a particular story:
Characters
Setting
Problem and Solution
Here is an example of providing differentiation to accommodate different proficiency levels in an English Language Arts classroom. The learning task is to use a graphic organizer to describe the terms listed for a particular story.

21. Advanced/Advanced High
As a teacher, you may ask native English speakers to draw their own graphic organizer, but you may give Advanced/Advanced High students a graphic organizer to help them visualize the relationship between the terms and what you are asking them to do.

22. The problem is _______, and the solution is _______.
Intermediate
The characters are…
The problem is _______, and the solution is _______.
The setting is…
The characters are…
The setting is..
For Intermediate ELLs, you could already put the key terms where they belong and give them simple sentence stems.

23. Draw the problem and the solution.
Beginner
Draw a character.
Draw the problem and the solution.
Draw the setting.
WORD BANK
Roger
forest
hungry
food
For Beginner ELLs, you can provide simple sentence stems with a word bank and/or ask them to draw an example of each rather than describe them using words.
Even though this is a really simple example, I think it’s a great visual of showing how all students are given the same objective and expectation to describe the character, the setting, and the goal/problem of the text, but are given different language supports to master that goal based on their proficiency levels.

24. LINGUISTIC ACCOMMODATIONS - Science
What was your hypothesis?
Was it correct or incorrect?
My hypothesis was…
My hypothesis was (correct/ incorrect) because...
My hypothesis was that the ball would (increase/ decrease) in speed.
My hypothesis was (correct/incorrect) because the ball (increased/ decreased) in speed.
Here is another example of a linguistic accommodation in writing a simple lab report. Each column is a different set of linguistic accommodations provided to students based on their proficiency level. The far left would be most fit for advanced/advanced high, the middle for intermediate, and the last one for beginners, obviously with the most support.
I’d like to take just a few minutes to practice creating linguistic accommodations. Think about any simple assignment that requires students to write or speak – a short answer, a report, an analysis, a conversation, a discussion – and try to create three levels of accommodations. You can work with a partner or on your own, but try to work with someone in the same content area.

25. Four essential messages to send to ELLs:
You are important.
What you are learning is important.
You can do it.
I will not give up on you.
As I begin to close, I’d like to share with you four critical messages to send to our English Language Learners, even as we are sometimes struggling to provide them with the support they need.
You are important.
What you are learning is important.
You can do it.
I will not give up on you.
When ELLs feel valued and supported, their affective filter is lowered, enabling them to be open to new learning. If their affective filter is high, no learning will take place because they will shut down.
Explain to participants that educators who work with ELLs must know the linguistic diversity of their communities (Wright, 2011). Learning about students’ backgrounds and literacy skills will allow the teacher to provide the necessary support to facilitate student learning and thereby avoid stereotypes and generalizations. Schools must make a conscious effort to choose viewing "language-as-a-resource" versus "language-as-a-problem." (Ruiz, 1984).

26. Now What?
From Skyward, identify your ELL students and fill out the following sections of TEA’s “ELL Instructional Accommodations” for EACH ELL STUDENT:
Name:
Academic year, grade, campus
Next, review and record EACH student’s TELPAS proficiency level from Eduphoria in the box in the lower left corner. Remember: 1=B, 2=I, 3=A, 4=AH
Over the next two weeks, while getting to know your students, mark any/all accommodations that were utilized during instruction. Use the “Beginning of the Year” (BOY) column.
This is comparable to the SPED ARD Student Reports.

27. So What?
Teacher created “ ELL Instructional Accommodations” are utilized for:
Ensures student success with language support in the classroom. (ELPS Compliance)
STAAR Accommodations for ESL students.
Teacher documentation for implementing ESL accommodations in the classroom.
****Remember, a student MAY NOT fail any subject due to language deficiencies.

28. For ELL lesson design, Newcomer support and / ELL support
Stefanie Bowen
Starr Lara
For ELL lesson design, Newcomer support and / ELL support
contact: Terri Watson
(817)
Here is my and my extension if you ever have any questions or concerns. And also feel free to stop by my room in 409 anytime. Please never hesitate to contact me – whether you have a logistical question about identifying your English Language Learners, or questions about how to accommodate for specific students, or strategies to share that have worked for you in your classes. Thank you so much for your time!