If students don't verbalize...

If students don't verbalize, students don't internalize.

 

I attended the Michigan Association for Bilingual Education, MABE event last week along with some of our fantastic colleagues across our NHA Michigan schools. As always, talking with our team served to refresh and renew my spirit!

 

 

Like any conference, there were hits and misses. Two break out sessions really spoke to me. I'll share some highlights and encourage you to follow the links to learn more.

 

"Improving English Language Learners' Writing: Focus on Accuracy and Fluency"- Dr. Zuzana Tomas http://supportingwriters.webs.com/apps/documents/

- I loved how she opened this session up: she had all participants respond to a prompt either a) in a language other than English (if known) or b) by writing from left to right. It was a great framing exercise for us. We immediately felt the struggle of a non-native English writer.

- she gave concrete examples on how to improve and develop students' accuracy and fluency

- she recommended a pretty great resource here http://www.brainfriendly.co.uk/ which I'm excited to explore further

- and to top it off she gave us a new and exciting EL-related blog to read http://eslcarissa.blogspot.com/2012/09/5-fun-ways-to-use-dictagloss-in-efl.html

 

"Language and Literacy for ELLs Creating Systematic Change for Academic Achievement"- Melissa Castillo  https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B62A1VcJ6ws3TWRoZDU4OWhrYWs&usp=sharing 

- here's a video clip showing Melissa's ideas for Building Academic Vocabulary

- Melissa works as an EL coach on a national level. I actually sat by a team of EL teachers from Montcalm that are currently working with her.

- I used her phrase 'if students don't verbalize, students don't internalize', a great reminder that we, and all teachers of ELs, need to speak less and listen more. Get our students talking purposefully!

- she addressed the Brick and Mortar word concept

 

These are some great resources! I encourage you to dive into these links and see what takeaways you can find and apply to your own teaching!

 



Lau vs. Nichols

I mentioned that I participated in the National Title III Directors meeting last week. After leaving I felt much more knowledgeable on the educational law that supports ELL students. I know many of us skimmed/read/memorized the ELL manual, but just in case you didn't I wanted to touch on one of those landmark educational cases that helped frame what we do today.

Check out this page, especially the link to 'the bilingual education timeline' http://www.pbs.org/kcet/publicschool/roots_in_history/bilingual.html
This is a half-page summarizing the Lau vs. Nichols case. This is why we, as ELL teachers, in fact have a job :) So thank you 1974!
http://www-tc.pbs.org/beyondbrown/brownpdfs/launichols.pdf

In summary, Lau v. Nichols states that by simply allowing students access to curriculum does not ensure their quality of treatment.

Regional Conferences Fall 2013

This year we introduced the first Regional Conferences specific to English Language Learners. We had more than 70 people participate at 5 different locations across 3 different States. I send a huge thank you to all those who participated. I left each meeting with a list of follow-up questions and a renewed motivation to tackle our biggest task: to better serve our ELL population and the teachers who teach them.

Thanks go to Forsyth Academy in NC, Pathway School of Discovery in OH, South Point Scholars, and Hamtramck Academy in MI for giving us room to host these events. Each one of these sites were picked because they are great examples of what an ELL-minded school looks like. I hope you, like me, will continue to use the teachers at these schools for inspiration and guidance.

West MI teachers discussing how to get our ELL families more involved at our schools

South Pointe's representation of where their kiddos come from 

marked by little jewels on the map

Team Central Michigan!

What Hamtramck teachers think the roles of 'ELL Coordinator' are

You gave me a lot to think about! 

My to-do list for the year! Stay tuned!

NHA-U and NTO

Welcome back to you (us)! I took a break blogging while you took a break (hopefully) teaching :) But now I'm ready to greet another year at NHA and am really excited to continue working with my favorite population of learners, the ELLs and the teachers that teach them!

So while I did get some down time this Summer I also had the opportunity to teach at NHA-U and NTO. Thank you so much to those of you that participated at these events! You truly helped focus my thoughts and ideas for the year to come. I hope we'll see more of you next year!

Our lovely view from DeVos Place in Grand Rapids, MI

NTO particpants hard at work!

Love it! There's something about chart paper that makes the teacher in me smile!







Your Service Center Library

I recently hauled in my personal collection of teaching resources and thought, why not share them with you? I am no longer in the classroom using these materials, they should be working for somebody!

So, if you're interested in "checking out" a resource below, email me and I'll put it in your school's mailbox straight away (takes about a week to get to you I'm told). Want a peek inside the resource to see if it's for you? I can do that too!

I'll record your check out date and a month later you'll start getting gentle reminders to send it back my way! Hopefully this way we can share (what I think) are good materials!

Some Novel Ties, read why I love them here

And some workbooks

And some 'best practices'