ELevate the Heights

October 1, 2024 - Volume 3, Issue 1

What's New in EL?

Multilingual Family Nights are Coming Up!

These events are designed to bring together multilingual families and provide a welcoming space to connect with school staff, learn about resources, and build community. We look forward to celebrating the diverse cultures in our district and strengthening our partnerships with multilingual families.

New EL/ML District-Wide Goal

For the 2024-2025 school year, we encourage all teachers to work on meeting a specific goal for our multilingual learners' language development. Please click on the LINK to print off and hang in your classroom as a reminder.

Get an ESL License for FREE or Professional Development

Are you passionate about supporting our multilingual students? Content teachers can earn an ESL license for free, gaining valuable skills to better serve our growing population of multilingual learners. Don’t miss this opportunity to make a greater impact! Click the LINK for more details on how to get started.

EL Strategy Spotlight

🌡️ Action Thermometer

For this activity, you should decide on a statement that students can have an opinion about that is connected to your lesson. Ask students who agree with the statement to go to one end of the classroom. Students who disagree should go to the other end. Students who are neutral or undecided can go to the center of the room. Ask the students to find a partner in their group and share why they went where they did. You can also ask students to find someone in a different group to discuss why they went where they did. Call on a couple of students from each of the three groups to share what their partners said. Ask if any students have change their minds after hearing the discussion.

Fenner, D. S., & Snyder, S. (2017). Unlocking English learners' potential: Strategies for making content accessible. Corwin Press.

Parent Voices: Insights from Our Community

Key Points to Takeaway

Parents are grateful for all the teachers, and they want teachers to communicate with them.
Parents are okay with any mode of communication--text, email, or phone calls to reach them.
Parents will do whatever it takes to support their children when the teacher sends information home.

"No meaningful family engagement can be established until relationships of trust and respect are established between home and school." --Karen Mapp

Have any feedback or questions?

Please reach out to the EL/ML Coordinator.

Sarah Baumann

baumanns@colheights.k12.mn.us

763-528-4505