Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Week #8 Assignment 1: School Action Plan Discussion
This purpose of this assignment is to get you thinking about your school action plan. Several of you have told me about your good ideas already. Now I'd like you to share your ideas with your classmates, and maybe use this blog to recruit teammates for your paper.:) For example- "Hey Susie- I was thinking about the same plan for my school. Do you want to work together?" Post one original thought about your progress so far, your ideas, your lack of ideas, etc. and then respond to someone else's post, encouraging them in their endeavors for a total of 2 posts.
Due date for this is before class on Jan 31.
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Hi everyone,
ReplyDeleteThe best way to get information about ESOL is to talk to ESOL teachers and the data specialists at your school. I found out the problems in ESOL department and the best solutions by talking to teachers. Good luck
Farhat
In our school, the Kindergarten grade level has a Social Studies club of 30 students that meets 2 mornings a month. Each meeting focuses on a different country or culture of people. I would like to encourage other grade levels to join in and create a club for their own students as well. Then the clubs could join together for a presentation during Arts night. This will get the students involved in learning, presenting, and even mentoring other grade levels across the school.
ReplyDeleteI spoke with our ESOL teacher as well, and one thing she suggested was holding a workshop about testing and academics. We have a lot of Koreans, and she said she constantly gets emails from parents wanting to know more about testing. Most of the parents want to know ways they can help their children get into the exceeds category. At a workshop, we could provide data about our test scores, information about all of the testing that their children must take and pass, and suggestions about maximizing each child's potential.
ReplyDeleteWe have Test Nights at our school and they seem to go well. Parents are provided similar information as you stated above. For a large turnout, we have the grade levels seperated into different areas of the school so ideas and questions can be tailored to that specific grade. We have had small turnouts though where we just went ahead and combined into one group. We have several translators on hand during the events for the parents that cannot understand English or have questions they have difficulty stating in English without the proper vocabulary. Our Parent Center helps to answer questions like these as well. I hope these suggestions could help you at your school.
DeleteLauren, when I was at Osborne MS, parents were invited to learn how to score the 8th grade writing test. Those who participated then were qualified to score student samples. Our principal would provide substitutes for all the Language Arts teachers and students were given a mock State Writing test. The trained parents and teachers would score the essays using the State rubrics. This was very successful in helping parents to not only know what test their child had to take to promote but also provided a real opportunity for them to understand what their child was being asked to do.
DeleteThis is a great idea to involve parents in thier child/children's education. Are they still doing this in your school? I did not see anything like this in my school.
DeleteCheryl Baird and I have joined efforts to design a class for the at-risk Black male student. We have gathered some preliminary data from our testing coordinator and have noted observations about the culture of African American males at Grayson HS and feel compelled to provide an alternate Language Arts classroom that might encourage the hard to reach student. Perhaps if our targeted audience can see themselves in the literature, they will feel a sense of worth that goes beyond being cool (wearing the sagging pants, getting referrals, facing panels, etc.) Cheryl and I intend to annotate titles that we would use in this LA elective and research community organizations that they would be required to participate in, and we might even investigate community leaders/guest speakers providing workshops in the classroom. We are very excited about the possibilities of such a classroom. Wouldn't it be nice if Gwinnett embraced some semester LA electives?
ReplyDeleteI work at a school for refugees that is in its 4th year of operation. It lacks a data base of all the groups and individuals who provided special services and programs at the school. I'm going to take on this project and list the data in a chronological historical format and present to the school directors for analysis of program success.
ReplyDeleteIf I didn't already have a topic that I am passionate about I would have considered working for you. Elaine, I find your job exciting and rewarding. I retire in 4-5 years and I live in Dekalb, so your research may result in the longevity of the school and just maybe there will be an opportunity for me in a few years.
DeleteHey Elaine I think that is a very meaningful project.Go for it!
DeleteExcellent idea! Data led instruction is the best way to go when teaching any student. The information will be well worth the work! Good Luck!
DeleteI agree with you and encourage you to do this, so it can benefit others. Great idea! go for it.
DeleteWhat a lofty goal, I encourage you to persevere . . . what you gain will be immeasurable and your instruction should improve as teachers see what the needs are.
DeleteGood luck!
I used to work at a school targeting refugees. It still is a very popular magnet for people and organizations who want to help those less fortunate than themselves. There were sometimes, both on the social and on the academic side, some would-be helpful people and organizations whose contributions were nice but sometimes a distraction from the primary mission of the school. There was an urgent need for the board to separate the truly valuable contributors from the simply well - intended. Your project will provide them with that kind of information.
DeleteOk, so I was a little timid in getting my action plan into full swing but this forum has offered some amount of fuel.Now for the past years I have hosted a culture/international day in my classroom.This is my second year at my current school and when I did this there last year, everyone absolutely loved it. The media specialist suggested I use the media center next year(now this year) I thought it was a good idea but silently thought I would keep it small among my students, my parents and interested teachers who wish to bring their students by. However,this course has given me reason to take the cultural extravaganza to the school level.Yes! so that's my action plan.I have sought the approval of my principal(who by the way participated in my classroom celebration last year by sharing her Mardi Gras culture,exhibiting costumes and handing out beads. The students and parents loved it! So it is official.My action plan will take the form of a schol wide international day.
ReplyDeleteCan I come? What school? What day?
DeleteThat sounds awesome! We already do one and it is always successful! Especially when food is involved. :)
DeleteWe do an international night at my school and it is amazing!! I think it is awesome that you want to take this school wide. It is such an amazing way to learng about the students' families and cultures. Plus when you have food that is always a plus!!
DeleteOur school did international night for several years. The students and parents dressed up in their native dress. The school got local businesses to donate food. The students provided games for the children. Fun was had by all.
DeleteAt one school my own children attended, I helped initiate and organize yearly, a diversity book fair as part of the celebration. Books like the ones featured by Laurie were fronted from the publishing houses, and people donated used books restricted to the genre of multi-cultural children's literature. It became a small fundraiser for the school, but was a lot of work to put on, at least for the first two years.
DeleteThis is a great idea Claudia. You've got me thinking and have inspired me by your courage to go "schoolwide".
ReplyDeleteI had been thinking of creating a "lunch and learn" series for my class next year.One Friday each month we'd take our lunch back to the classroom and eat with a guest from the community. The guests would represent one of the cultures seen in our classroom. Sometimes it might be a parent other times it might be an artist, musician or business person. The guests would be asked to share something of their personal story.
I love the manageability of this proposal. It seems just the right size to succeed.
Deletea simple example is getting a Spanish parent to come in and read aloud a Spanish book the English-at-home children may already know in English.
After surveying several teachers, paraprofessionals, and administrators at Minor, I’m thinking about doing a proposal to have a Spanish interpreter available at school 2 days a week for parent meetings. We have an extensive parent center, multi-cultural books in the media center and a parent liaison, who is not allowed to interpret for special education meetings. The interpreters hired by the county are paid $42 per hour and think it might be more economical to have an interpreter on site.
ReplyDeleteThat is a great idea! Have an interpreter on site is a huge help and makes life much easier on many levels. We are blessed in that we have many teachers and staff around that can translate for us without have to coordinate an interpreter.
DeleteNancy, I think having an onsite interpreter is a great idea. Many of the Spanish speaking parents at my school would love to have someone who could explain how things work to them. Having someone at the school who can interpret will make the school seem more accessible to them.
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ReplyDeleteI would really like to do some sort of IPAD cafe or Kindle Cafe during lunch. Some other elementary schools already have this in place and seems like an amazing way to encourage learning while incorporating technology. The students would be on a rotation during lunch to eat first and then use the kindles or ipads to read books or access educational apps. A lot of the students at my school do not have access to this type of technology but need to opportunity to be exposed to it and use it as their peers at other schools are using kindles and ipads all the time. The ELL students would definitly benefit from extra exposure,could preview vocabulary words as well as listen to ebooks if they are NEPs or non-readers.
ReplyDeleteI am thinking that I need to focus on creating a workshop on our County Language Data Base as a means to keep our teachers informed and able to access information already translated for our parents. With this knowledge in place, the hope would be to increase parent participation in all areas, school activities, SST meetings, and parent/teacher conferences as teachers will more readily send home information in the correct language. AS stated at our Mini-Conference, our weakest scoring was due to the lack of materials sent home to parents in the correct format. Any ideas?
ReplyDeleteAnybody think this is a good idea? :-)
DeleteIt is a great idea. I think if it was me, I might start by offering the workshop to our faculty, another suggestion from the State Inspectors. You could lower the pressure by saying it was just an abbreviated rehearsal for the proposed parent workshop.
DeleteI would like to see my school create a "practical" Engish class for parents allowing them to gain confidence in the English phrases needed to navigate doctors appointments, school registration and basic community interactions. In addition to learning the phrases we would also help parents create a "cheat sheet" with common phrases in both English and their native language and information needed for completeing common forms. I recently read an article about a school which had done this during esol summer school and was quite successful.
ReplyDeleteNow that sounds like a need for the entire county. Many parents of my EL students have very little understanding of the English language and struggle to communicate effectively with the school and teachers.
DeleteOur school provided English classes for several years. The response at first was slow then friends brought friends and it was very successful. Great idea!
DeleteOur school, Peachtree Elementary in Norcross, recently started this and it was over-subscribed in the first week. You could call our "Parent Center", who are organizing and teaching it, and get some very fresh and relevant feedback about your Action Plan. Another school in DeKalb organized the parent Englsh class as a Saturday School and provided childcare.
DeleteI discussed with our ESOL teachers what they felt was needed at our school for an action plan. They are concerned with our direct served students in regular education without a co-lab teacher with the teaching strategies for ELLs. The teachers all make GCPS Quality Plus Teaching Strategies, but many times the teachers lack information or lack sensitivity for struggles of these students. I was told many times the performance indicators are written down but not followed. I plan to develop a staff development workshop to focus on this need.
ReplyDeleteIt has been difficult in gathering information. I am not in a Title I school, we only have 60 ELL students in the entire school, at this time, but I see this changing! Meeting needs of different cultures is just not a priority at my school. I want to change this, and my plan is to spend time this summer having interviews with my new students, learning about their cultures, having families complete a cultural poster to be presented during the 1st week of school, inviting the parents. I am hoping to use this as a model for other teachers, sharing my experience in a staff development meeting later in the semester. Maybe this will lead to others trying to reach all students.
ReplyDeleteKathy, I am in a similar situation, thus, my topic is more a culture issue that is not being met in my school and not specifically an ELL issue.
DeleteI was thinking maybe a before school language club. Students who did not speak another language could come and work with a sponsor teacher and some students that are fluent in that language to teach the fellow students basic words to start and then expand from there. Just a thought.
ReplyDeleteWell I am still trying to see which way to go with this assignment. It seems like most teachers don't really know much about the cultures of the EL students they serve. I was thinking about trying to come up with some kind of program that encourages teachers to learn more about their students. Still pondering.
ReplyDelete30 years of research affirms that an elementary age child’s network of connections to adults in the extended family and community supports academic success, not only success in elementary school, but over their whole life establishing as it does a model of mutual responsibilities (Project, 2005). These foundational relationships constitute what is known as “social capital”, the connections between social networks. For the elementary age child, social capital is primarily with adults. In addition to their homeroom teachers: in Kindergarten, one lead teacher and one assistant, PES students are changing teachers for ELL, Spanish, PE, Music, Art, Speech, and Special Education. Maintaining these high quality connections seems intuitively to be a pedagogical imperative, but longitudinal research shows the power of practices as basic as every staff member greeting by name every student they see each day. In addition to our racial and socioeconomic diversity, we have children recently arrived from several countries and speaking different languages at home. Even if a staff member remembers the name that goes with the face, pronunciation can be daunting. To this end, the proposed "PES Faces and Names" will produce a 5-8 second video clip of each student pronouncing their name, with the name written out as a caption. Staff, including custodial staff, will access via the Internet the clips alphabetically or grouped by homeroom. Every summer along with the new rosters, the PES Faces and Names collection will be updated.
ReplyDeleteMy school action plan actually came from the Hispanic students I teach. Some of them are ELL, and some of them are not, but they said much of my school's Hispanic population dropped out starting 2 years ago because they went to get full-time jobs. Our cultural survey pointed out that immigrant households not only need money to operate here, but also to send to their families in their home countries. I propose starting a night school program at my school. This program would be a blend of online school and actual seat time at school. The students would receive a laptop and get their assignments throughout the week. Then, they would meet at night several times per week to have face time with their instructors and receive extra help. I feel this would allow students to help their families financially without sacrificing their education.
ReplyDeleteHow to incorporate more parental involvement:
ReplyDeleteEnglish classes, tools for tutoring at home with their student(s), International night: bring pot luck, displays materials
During class, Davida had an awesome plan of creating classes for students who dropped out school. We are working together.
Laurie posed some very good questions to think about. Thanks, Laurie