ELL/EAL Teacher Newsletter

Welcome back to returning and new to role ELL teachers. We hope that you had a restful summer break and are ready to support our amazing students. This monthly newsletter is intended to provide helpful information and links all in one place.

AIPs and Assessments:

In order to access the September Startup checklist for ELL case managers and teachers, log into the AIP app on the District homepage or by entering https://ellaip.sd61.bc.ca/. At the top right of the home page, there is a link to the instructions and supporting documentation. Please read the instructions for the annual September Startup, School Guidelines on ESD and the Letter of Consent template. Please note the very specific step by step process for identifying students of Indigenous ancestry who may benefit from supplementary language support, or ESD (English Skills Development). For all ESD students (English as a Second Dialect or English Skills Development), a new oral language assessment must be evident in the AIP, both by date uploaded into section H: Documents. Results must reflect a need for supplementary ORAL language support.

Any assessments completed need to be district-endorsed and consistent across schools. Therefore, please use the oral language assessments in the Google Shared Drive. If you do not have access yet, please send Jennifer Barber and email (jbarber@sd61.bc.ca). There are writing templates and prompts available there as well; note that writing samples need to be annotated and strengths/stretches noted on the sample before uploading into section H. For reading assessments, the PM Benchmarks with the comprehension questions is the current standard for elementary grades. Middle and secondary schools are to use the IPT reading assessment booklets.

IMPORTANT: In order for your school administration to see, review and approve of your AIPs at your school, you MUST click on the blue "Ready For Review" button at the top of each AIP file. Note that you can continue to edit the AIP file after you have submitted it for review. Note that AIPs are to be fully complete by the end of the month and this year's AIPs will be visible to parents and caregivers in early October via Parent Connect. So, be sure to submit your AIPs for review now and check to make sure that all of your AIPs file icons appear in yellow or blue and not pink in the home screen. If any are pink, then your administrator cannot see or approve of the AIPs for funding. Please be sure to communicate the number of fundable (year 1-5) ELL/ESD students on your caseload to your school administration.

Samantha Rubin and Yves Hebert are our school district's two Multicultural Liason Support Workers. Please make them feel welcome in your school. If you see them, know that they are working hard to help our newcomer students settle and feel connected in their new schools. Samantha and Yves are based out of the SD61 Welcome & Learning Centre but will primarily be welcoming students in schools and supporting after school programming. They support our brand new to Canada immigrant and Refugee students through the Welcome Centre before and after their transition to school. They will also reach out to you via email when a new student is about to transition into your school to arrange for a tour. Feel free to reach out to either of them any time if you require extra support with a newcomer student on your caseload who is brand new to Canada. It is good to know that Samantha speaks Spanish, French, Japanese and basic Mandarin. Yves speaks French and basic Spanish.

Translation - If staff at your school requires translation or interpretation services for a parent meeting, please have your school principal reach out to Tanya Clarke to request support. This will need to be approved by David Hovis and, once approved, a 30 minute block of of support is contracted out to the ICA by Tanya. This approval and booking takes some time, so we ask for at least 10 days notice.

David Hovis, District Principal (dhovis@sd61.bc.ca), Cell: (250) 507-4752

Jennifer Barber, District ELL Teacher Support & Teacher, Welcome & Learning Centre (jbarber@sd61.bc.ca), Cell: (250)886-6207

Samantha Rubin, District Multicultural Liason Support Worker, Welcome & Learning Centre srubin@sd61.bc.ca, Cell: (250)361-7426

Yves Hebert, District Multicultural Liason Support Worker, Welcome & Learning Centre yhebert@sd61.bc.ca, Cell: (250)886-1826

Tanya Clarke, Administrative Assistant, Welcome & Learning Centre (taclarke@sd61.bc.ca)

September 17 from 1:00- 2:30 New To Role ELL Teacher Meeting in the Board Room of the School Board Office, 556 Boleskine.

This group of ELL teachers will meet four times throughout the fall and winter with VICCIR (Vancouver Island Centre for Immigrant and Refugees) and focus on Healthy Relationships. We will use the evidence-based book entitled Social Emotional Learning for Multilingual Learners, by Diane Stehr-Fenner and Mindi Teich. Watch for more information and an invitation for this opportunity soon.

All K-8 schools and teachers will be invited to participate in a book club focusing on strategies for supporting multilingual learners. Included are access to blackline masters, templates and evidence-based strategies for supporting language learners in the content areas.