Where are We At?

As instructors our central mission is to teach students what they need to know. This is the obvious starting point that we all share. However, where do we go from there? How do we know what our students need? How do we assess their strenghts and weakness'? Know when to move forward, when to review?

How do we plan for our kids? And how do you as ELL coordinators evaluate lessons? These questions are helpful as a self-evaluation tool. Do you know how you would answer these personally? How your ELL teachers would answer them?

The strength of our programs is founded on the clarity of understanding that our ELL teachers have.
Start really thinking about your program. Begin by evaluating your own knowledge, ask yourself those questions above. From there have a conversation with your ELL staff and see where they stand.

Next week I'll be writing about what foundational pieces make up a good ELL program. I will also introduce some simple baseline assessments that can be used to help guide our teaching.

Until then, start talking!

Immersion

A fellow ELL coordinator referred this short film to us here at the Service Center. Many of our teachers find this is a reality during standardarized testing, I know I did. I always felt especially bad when covering all our classroom work during testing.

Perhaps not the most uplifting new years post, but a reality nonetheless.