ELL Weekend

I didn't think I'd get to post anything new this weekend...so I am glad I just made it in.
And I want to reflect a bit on why I chose the topic of English Language Learners to begin with.

Me- the English Learner
First of all- I was an English Language Learner. I went through the (unfortunately) typical experience of having other students make fun of me as I stumbled through the various obstacles of English phonology...

"Teesher, Teesher!" would come out of my mouth, to which many of my fellow students would taunt me with "Ha, ha, ha, ha- he said T-shirt, he called the teacher a T-shirt." A representative example. There were many, many more. In fact, there was one kid in particular who had made it a hobby to torment me every day with original epithets like "Beaneater" and "wet-back." It reached a point that I could no longer handle it. I didn't know what those words meant, but I knew they hurt and that other kids got pleasure in having those words hurled at me.

So one day I did something that I've never been proud of but that had to happen. I kicked another 1st grader's butt. Mind you, he was a very mean 1st grader but I didn't feel like fighting again for a long time after that incident.

Oh yeah- and I got expelled from the school.

And yet, somehow, over time, at the new school, I figured things out, I even lost my accent and I earned a little "F" in front of my name. I still remember my 4th grade teacher showing me her roster and a little "-F" notation next to it. I didn't know then, that was my new designation as "Fully English Proficient."

But, as I got older and more mature, I noticed that not all kids were this "lucky." (I still didn't know why I would have absorbed English faster than other ELL peers). In fact, in high school, I met many kids who seemed to be "stuck" in "ESL" classes, whom I never really saw except at lunch. I did not have any classes with them, and in fact, they had no classes with any other kids but themselves. Quite segregated. I didn't understand, but it didn't sit right. Other kids taunting them with epithets, and making fun of the way they spoke.

And I wondered if that could have been me.

Me- the teacher, educator, advocate...
So years later, when I finally decided teaching really was for me, I decided that I would be the kind of teacher I never had as an ELL, but more importantly, the kind of teacher that would be cognizant of the needs of ELLs- while not forgetting that they are students like everyone else and should be held to the same high expectations and academic and content standards. And just as important, set up a classroom environment in which we are ALL learning Standard Academic English- a language onto itself!

Anyway, weekends are good for reflecting, and I reflect a lot through my writing. It's important for me every now and again to remind myself of what it is that motivates me to do what I do both in and out of the classroom around ELLs. It can be a draining, challenging job given the current political climate here in the U.S.

But onward...a new week approaches.

Thanks for reading (and bearing with) my humble blog and today's flavor of musings!

How do we know what the needs of ELLs are?

Welcome back educators and all...

Before even starting to be able to talk about how to get English Learners what they need, we need to identify the needs of these English learners in relation to some goal or benchmark they need to attain in order to fully access the core curriculum taught in a typical, mainstream classroom. Enter that vile word for some teachers, a misunderstood word for most others: assessment

The CELDT (California English Language Development Test)

In California, we have developed a holy grail of assessments- okay it's not really- but it has been improved recently and the newer edition will roll out this coming school year. But I digress...

Without boring anyone, the CELDT is an assessment that serves to identify which of our incoming students are English Learners. It is given once a year to students new to CA schools.
For a quick and easy primer on the CELDT here's a good place to visit:

http://www.sandi.net/testingunit/pdf/celdtptbroch07.pdf

That is a good starting point, and unfortunately, where we stop as well. After all, from an instructional point of view, it is even more useful to measure and continually monitor the English proficiency of an English learner. CELDT is a summative snapshot, a one time deal.

So how do we REALLY make CELDT work for us?

Well, since most districts do not have formative assessments to continually monitor the growth and development of an ELL's level of English proficiency, we also use the CELDT results as an attempt to take that "snapshot" of an ELL's proficiency in all four language domains: listening, speaking, reading and writing as a starting point. And that is how we start to identify different types of English learners- along a continuum of developing English proficiency.

We'll move along the continuum next time...

But a quick note on who takes the CELDT before we go...

Well the short answer of course is English Learners. But these are determined through completion of a "Home Language Survey," which ideally is done at the time of registration. Different districts handle these in different ways but generally, families are asked to identify the language(s) spoken at home. If a non-English language is spoken, that student is required to have his/her language proficiency assessed- via the CELDT of course.

For an example of how one district goes through this process (and then some) watch this video:



Till next time!