Language & Cultural Services
LCS Bulletin - December 12, 2016
7 tips for engaging ESL students in music education
"So many of my students enter my room, and I see a wave of relief wash over them," says Angela Ammerman, a speaker at NAfME's fourth-annual conference at the Gaylord Texas Conference and Resort.
Ammerman is referring to her English language learner (ELL) students who face the daily pressure of taking classes in a variety of subjects in a language and country that are unfamiliar to them. For centuries, music has been used as a way to not only bridge cultures, but also as a form of expression that doesn't explicitly require words.
Music educators are in a unique position in that they provide a way for ELL students to communicate and express themselves without having to simultaneously remember grammar rules. And because of that, ELL students can relax when they walk through those band room doors.
As the demands for ELL courses continue to soar, music educators must find new ways to engage these students in music performance at school. Ammerman, who had just one ELL student in her beginning orchestra class during her first year at Annandale High School in Virginia, shares seven tips on how she was able to grow that number to 11 by the next year. Read more about these seven tips to encourage and engage English Learners in your classroom.
WIDA ACCESS for ELLs 2.0 Scoring Changes
To meet language demands of college and career readiness standards, WIDA is raising the bar for language proficiency. Students will need to showcase higher language skills in 2016–2017 to achieve the same proficiency level scores (1.0–6.0). This is the result of a process called standard setting. Standard setting determines the student performance required for each proficiency level through a series of decisions made for each grade level by expert panels of teachers, as well as district and state English language learner administrators. For details, please visit wida.us/proficiency
Webinar: We All Teach ELs: Practical Applications of Language Acquisition Theory for Special Area Teachers (PE, Health, Music & Art)
Time: 3pm to 4pm CST
In this interactive webinar, participants will learn to apply second language acquisition theory to classroom instruction. Examples of instructional strategies for teaching ELs will be presented, with a focus on the special content areas of PE, Health, Music, and Art. Facilitators will also present ways to effectively share these strategies with other educators.
Reminder: Former EL Monitoring Forms (Action required by December 30th)
Reminder: Please remember that we are still in the window for completion of monitoring of Former English Learners. If you have Former English Learners pending in need of monitoring, you received an email from Ellevation Education on in the past two weeks. You will provide monitoring feedback electronically by logging into InClass via Clever. If you have questions on if you have any students pending monitoring or have difficulty logging in or completing the monitoring form, please contact your ELD teacher or ELD coordinator.
Monitoring of Former English Learners is a requirement of Title III of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). To ensure that students who have attained English language proficiency on the ACCESS for ELLs assessment are continuing to be successful, we monitor Former English Learners for four years following the initial attainment of the proficiency score. The monitoring window for the current fall semester opened Monday, October 31st and will remain open until December 30, 2016. Content area teachers received an email from Ellevation Education beginning Monday, October 31st inviting them to login to InClass via Clever to complete a virtual monitoring forms for the Former English Learners in their classes.
If you have any questions, please contact your school’s ELD teacher or ELD coordinator for assistance and support.
CORE’s Que Llueva Café Scholarship for Undocumented High School/GED Graduates
Chicano Organizing & Research in Education (CORE) is awarding scholarships to undocumented high school/GED graduates who will enroll for the first time in an accredited college or university in the U.S. This scholarship aims to support the dreams, hopes and aspirations of college bound undocumented students so that they can earn their college education.
Here are the eligibility requirements:
- Must be of Chicano / Latino descent
- Must be an undocumented, immigrant student
- Must be enrolling for the first time in an accredited college or university in the U.S. or Puerto Rico for the 2017- 2018 academic year
- Due to limited funds, current college students will not be considered.
- Must demonstrate financial need
- Must demonstrate academic potential and promise
The deadline to apply is February 25, 2017
For more information and to apply, please visit their official website: CORE Scholarship
Preparation of the ACCESS 2.0 2017 PreID File (Actions required by December 14th)
We are in the process of preparations for administration of ACCESS for ELLs 2.0 testing in spring 2017. This year the OSDE uploaded information from the WAVE to populate the pre-id data file for ACCESS. We received information yesterday, November 29th, 2016, regarding our timeline to complete any edits or additions of students and/or demographic information. Because of the timeline we’ve been given, we will extend our internal timeline for this information to be returned from schools to the office of Language and Cultural Services from December 2nd to December 14th, 2016.
By Monday, December 5th, ELD teachers, ELD site contacts, and principals will receive an email with a spreadsheet of current English Learners in grades Kinder through 12th grade. Any missing information from PowerSchool and Ellevation will be highlighted in the spreadsheet to be filled in by the school team. This will also include testing accommodations as listed on the IEP, including paper, online, or Alternate ACCESS. Information on allowable accommodations for the ACCESS 2.0 and Alternate ACCESS and identification of students who could be eligible to participate in the Alternate ACCESS are attached here and will be included in the email as well.
ELD Tools from Teacher Institute
What's Your Strategy?
Ellevation has released over 1,400 content examples for YOU to see within Ellevation Strategies. Each strategy now has a core content example for each of the grade bands: K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12. The BEST part is that each of the include both a content and language objective. Login through Clever and check them out!
ACCESS for ELLs 2.0 test planning and preparation for 2017 (action required by December 21, 2016)
The testing window for ACCESS for ELLs 2.0 will open on February 6, 2017 through March 31, 2017. All English Learner students in grades Kinder through 12th grade will participate in the ACCESS for ELLs 2.0to assess their English language proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Students in grades 1st through 3rd will take the listening, speaking, and reading sub-tests online and the writing sub-test on paper. Students in grades 4th through 12th will take all sub-tests online. Kindergarten ACCESS and Alternate ACCESS will continue to be administered in a paper-based format.
Principals or principal designees should complete the ACCESS for ELLs 2.0: 2017 Testing Roles Planning Form by December 21, with information for team members at their schools who will be filling the role of test coordinator and/or test administrator for the various ACCESS tests. There should be one test coordinator per school and this person does not necessarily need to be a test administrator. Test administrators should be identified at a ratio of one test administrator per 30 English Learners (1:30). Details regarding qualifications, roles, responsibilities, and required trainings can be found in the ACCESS 2.0 Roles and Responsibilities 2017.
Please contact your ELD coordinator or Laura Grisso for any related questions.
Action required for principals by December 21:
- Complete the ACCESS for ELLs 2.0: 2017 Testing Roles Planning Form
- Ensure ACCESS Test Coordinators and Test Administrators register in MLP for their required trainings (see ACCESS for ELLs 2.0 2017 Training Schedule)
Resources:
Missed a Department Meeting?
Elementary ELD Department Meetings
Language & Cultural Services Events
Week of December 12:
December 13, 8:30am - New ELD Teacher Bootcamp
December 14 - ACCESS 2.0 2017 Pre-ID File Submission Deadline
Week of December 19:
Happy Holidays!
December 21 - ACCESS 2.0 2017 Testing Planning Submission Deadline
December 30 - Former English Learner Monitoring Completion Deadline
All events are listed in MyLearningPlan unless otherwise noted. Please pre-register and verify session location in MLP.
Check out the Language & Cultural Services events calendar for future events.