(gentle music)
One of the things I think
I bring to the table as a teacher, ESL teacher,
is what are some of the challenges that sometimes
appear to be a developmental issue
that are really a language issue
and where that difference might be.
So, for example, our students, being Cape Verdean,
you know, where they come from,
as with many other cultures,
are developing literacy often,
for the first time, in English,
or they have a very limited literacy background
in their native language
and that can be a little challenging for people
to understand who are not so familiar
with the culture, with the community,
with this particular population of students.
So, for example, a lot of the research that's been done,
a lot of the materials that have been created
are often done based on, for example, Spanish speakers
because we have such a large population
in the United States,
which makes sense.
But that can pose some problems because
they often have literacy in their first language,
where students like mine,
their first language being Creole,
is not a written language.
So, often they're developing reading and writing skills
for the first time in this second language.
Things like that, I think,
can make it important to have the language acquisition
person in on that meeting and that conversation,
because there's a lot that can be clarified
in that sense.
The process with ELs with possible special needs
starts with the student study team
where teachers, specialists,
anyone who's working with the student
meet a few times a year to see,
to set small benchmarks for them
and see how, if they're able to make progress
through that.
I'm involved in that as one of the pieces of that,
but also to give insight as to,
is this an issue with the student's language?
Do I see the student progressing normally as an EL?
Or are there other things going into what's happening?
As the ESL teacher, one of my roles is
to also bring both documentation and samples
of what am I currently doing in my classroom
to support the student in the way I think
they need to be supported.
So I might bring, you know, a sample of student A,
this is the goal, this is what I used with these students
and then this is how I differentiated.
This is what I'm currently doing to address
an issue or a difficulty I think the student is having.
So it's important that we bring samples of those things
and, you know, lists of the interventions
that we're currently trying,
to see how that's working.
We really try to be flexible and make sure
that we are supporting them to be moving,
and that requires a lot of us talking to one another
about how to support them through that process.
So we've come up with this form,
that we've created, that really helps us to do that.
So me, as the ESL teacher,
I would fill in, you know, the scores
that the student currently has
and I might start it with some comments about,
you know, what I see going on in their language acquisition.
For example, if I think they're ready to move up.
And then I would pass that form to the math teacher,
and the science teacher, and the social studies,
and that way those teachers don't always get to be part
of our meeting that we have with Nori,
just our schedules are, you know, different and.
So we don't typically get together as a group,
but this gives them a chance
to have their own documentation and give their input
about that student moving.
My name is Carey Reeve Hildebrant.
I am the Chief Academic Officer
at the Lowell Community Charter Public School,
located in Lowell, Mass.
We are a school that serves 800 students,
Pre-K to Grade Eight,
and definitely represent the diverse population
that Lowell serves,
and we are about 50% ELL.
And thinking about the identiphage,
identification of students with special needs
as informal day to day observation by
someone that the students feel comfortable with,
know well, have made a connection with.
They often provide as much information as,
as the more formal assessment,
and certainly when we're seeing something
that is happening in the classroom day to day
and then our formal assessment doesn't match.
That is certainly a place that we then investigate, right?
About did it have something to do
with the testing environment?
Did it have to do with that day?
You know, to make sure that our more formal assessments
are matching what we're seeing in the informal way,
and when there's a disconnect,
investigating as to why there might be
a disconnect.
We do EL progress reports
that are translated, you know, as needed,
and progress monitor through that
a bunch of the underpinnings of reading, writing,
speaking, listening, you know, language development.
And so that's another tool that our EL teachers
are constantly looking at through the lens
of moving along in this continuum of skills
that we're expecting students to,
to begin to master at various levels.