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Welcome to English Language Development class Level 1!

In this class, we learn the academic skills expected across all classes - vocabulary and sentences to describe or explain or compare characters or science experiments or historical periods - by applying them to the everyday vocabulary we need in order to grow our English language skills.

At the beginning of January, our students did excellent work preparing for our yearly English exam, called ACCESS. ACCESS is a test to see how our students are growing in their English reading, writing, speaking, and listening. At school, we use these skills daily, and this class of students did a particularly good job in concentrating on learning how the test works so that they can truly display how much their knowledge of the English language is growing.

After the test, we learned about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, a significant fighter for human rights in the United States. We learned about Dr. King's life and how the Civil Rights Movement, which he helped to organize, fought to bring equal voting and educational rights to African American Citizens. We studied this while learning how to make past tense sentences in English. For their end-of-unit projects, students are creating posters about a significant fighter for Human Rights from other countries. I look forward to sharing their final works!

I am Diana Karamourtopoulos, your student's ESL teacher. In this class, we work on improving our English in all 4 domains: reading, writing, speaking, and listening. We are completing a unit that asks the question: Should Everyone Be Bilingual? Students learned vocabulary, read sources and found evidence for a debate and a writing project. The debate went wonderfully and all students participated. We are now writing a CER (claim-evidence-reasoning) paragraph. This is great practice because this format is used in their other content classes as well. I will be sending home some of their amazing writing one we are finished!

I am Diana Karamourtopoulos, your student's Foundational Reading class! In this class, we will work on improving our reading through learning phonics (the letters and sounds) in English. We have moved on to a program called IRLA, where students are practicing some common beginning sounds and reading different texts to practice. We have also started reading groups and students are practicing different strategies to understand more challenging texts.

I am Diana Karamourtopoulos, your student's Foundational Reading class! In this class, we will work on improving our reading through learning phonics (the letters and sounds) in English. We have moved on to a program called IRLA, where students are practicing some common beginning sounds and reading different texts to practice. We have also started reading groups and students are practicing different strategies to understand more challenging texts.

I am Diana Karamourtopoulos, your student's Foundational Reading class! In this class, we will work on improving our reading through learning phonics (the letters and sounds) in English. We have been working our way through all the letters in the alphabet and the sounds they make. We are focusing on vowel sounds and the shorter words. We have been working on reading slightly longer words and blending sounds together. We also practice the words most frequently seen in English, that often do not follow the rules of the English language. These are words we have to memorize. In addition, we read a short article everyday, and write one thing we learned. Our recent unit was about the rain cycle. Ask your students if they remember any facts!

My name is Rob McCourt and I’m excited to be teaching your children this year. I wanted to take the opportunity to introduce myself and explain what we have done in class this month. With eight years of ESL experience, both in the US and abroad, I have a passion for helping students grow. I also coach high school football, which allows me to combine my love for teaching and sports. In my free time, I enjoy yoga, candlepin bowling, and watching football.

During September, we completed our first unit on “Life in the City.” The students explored the city of Astrana, discussing its unique features compared to other cities. We reviewed vocabulary related to urban life, such as "capital," "architecture," and "skyscraper." Additionally, we focused on the correct usage of "on" and "in" when expressing location, enhancing their understanding of spatial descriptions.

As we move into our next unit, "Amazing Jobs," I’m eager to dive into discussions about various professions and the skills required for them. This unit will allow students to broaden their vocabulary while learning about the diverse career paths available in our world. Thank you for your continued support, and I look forward to an exciting month ahead!

Our class had a very productive last few weeks as we learned and practiced writing skills. Students chose a topic of their interest and wrote a short argumentative text defending their points of view by presenting evidence to support their opinions. When writing, students used academic language to introduce their topics, exposed their main argument and backed their claims with evidence they found during the research phase.

Our class also received their baseline scores for the Flashlight Benchmark activity. This activity helps teachers better understand where student speaking and writing skills lie at the beginning of trimester one so we can track and compare progress throughout the school year. Students in ELD 3 had very successful scores and I am very proud of how hard they worked on this activity. All students in the class scored well in level three and several students had level 4 scores for either speaking or writing. This activity is important not only for us to know how well students are doing, but it is also great practice for the ACCESS test that takes place in January.

I hope everyone has a restful break and a wonderful Thanksgiving!

If you wish to get in touch with me, you can email me at keila.camposdeoliveira@watertown.k12.ma.us

Our reading class has been moving at full speed now. Term one is finished and students have made a lot of progress in their English reading skills and vocabulary development. The routines we set into motion help students understand expectations and produce the work required of them. As such, students now have a strong knowledge of the alphabet and can recognize and reproduce the learned content with ease. They understand the value of alphabetical order and can organize lists of words or book titles alphabetically.

Over the last few weeks we have read several short texts together and created a short video of one of the stories we read. Today we started writing our own story together! I look forward to working with this class next term to help them continue to progress on their reading journeys!

I hope everyone has a restful break and a wonderful Thanksgiving!

If you wish to get in touch with me, you can email me at keila.camposdeoliveira@watertown.k12.ma.us

Hello! Students wrote their C.E.R.s on Esperanza Rising and have started a new unit on art and artists and the connections to science and culture, which will continue until February Break. Students will be:

• describing and discussing art and visual communication
• talking about how art connects us across time, space, and cultures
• expressing interpretation and understanding
• using reported speech to describe what someone said
• using two- and three-word verb phrases
• writing a review of a piece of art
• asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering)
• constructing explanations (for science) and designing solutions (for engineering)

They also finished their ACCESS tests in early January. Results will be available to you in early June.

I hope you are having a good new year!!

Please contact me with any questions or concerns at sheila.gilmartin@watertown.k12.ma.us.

Hello! Students wrote their C.E.R.s on Esperanza Rising and have started a new unit on art and artists and the connections to science and culture, which will continue until February Break. Students will be:

• describing and discussing art and visual communication
• talking about how art connects us across time, space, and cultures
• expressing interpretation and understanding
• using reported speech to describe what someone said
• using two- and three-word verb phrases
• writing a review of a piece of art
• asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering)
• constructing explanations (for science) and designing solutions (for engineering)

They also finished their ACCESS tests in early January. Results will be available to you in early June.

I hope you are having a good new year!!

Please contact me with any questions or concerns at sheila.gilmartin@watertown.k12.ma.us.

Kate Phillipson
ELE/ESL District Coordinator

Watertown Public Schools
68 Waverley Avenue
Watertown, MA 02472
617-972-4297

kathryn.phillipson@watertown.k12.ma.us