Professional Development Session 1: 1.5 hours

SEI: Why it matters to all teachers

for Administrators and Educators who have not yet earned SEI Endorsement

North River Collaborative Title III Grant Consortium 2015

Agenda● Who are ELLs?

● What is WIDA?

● What are the Policies?

● What does RETELL mean for me?

● How is an SEI lesson plan different?

● What is a Language Objective?

Who is an English Language Learner (ELL)?

An English Language Learner (ELL) is a child who does not speak English or whose native language is not English and who is not currently able to perform ordinary classroom work in English.

▪ Speaks another language at home▪ Speaks an additional language at home

▪ Lives in a home where another language has an impact on that student’s language skills

Characteristics of LEPs/ELLs• A Limited English

Proficient (LEP) student is considered to be limited in his or her English language proficiency in one or more of the domains of language:

– reading– Writing– speaking – listening

• Characteristics of ELLs can vary:

– Newly arrived or in US for years

– Formal, limited/interrupted, or no prior education

– Can have strong social language skills but weak literacy skills

Where are the ELLs learners? US ELL Population

ELL Enrollment in MA• 70% increase

• 82% of all schools have at least 1 ELL.

• According to the current trend, by 2021, approximately 20% of all MA students K-12 will be ELLs.

ELL Enrollment in [District]

• Numbers• Cultural/language background• Services currently provided

• (input statistics for your district)

ELL Proficiency Levels

When a child is assessed and determined to be an ELL, they are assigned a

WIDA English Language Proficiency Level

Level 6: Reaching

Level 5: Bridging

Level 4: Expanding

Level 3: Developing

Level 2: Emerging

Level 1: Entering

What is WIDA?• A consortium of 36 states.

• World Class Instructional Design and Assessment

• Advances academic language development and achievement for linguistically diverse students through

high quality standards, assessments, research, and professional development for educators.

Values

• WIDA's Can-Do Philosophy: believing in the assets, contributions, and potential of linguistically diverse

students

• Collaboration: facilitating interaction among educators, state and local educational agencies, researchers,

policy-makers, and experts worldwide

• Innovation: drawing from research and practice to find the best solutions for students and educators

• Service: exceeding expectations with friendly and knowledgeable support of our customers and

stakeholders

WIDA’s Guiding Principles of Language Development

1. Students’ languages and cultures are valuable resources to be tapped and incorporated

into schooling.

2. Students’ home, school, and community experiences influence their language

development.

3. Students draw on their metacognitive, metalinguistic, and metacultural awareness to

develop proficiency in additional languages.

4. Students' academic language development in their native language facilitates their

academic language development in English. Conversely, students' academic language

development in English informs their academic language development in their native

language.

5. Students learn language and culture through meaningful use and interaction.

WIDA’s Guiding Principles of Language Development (pg. 2)

6. Students use language in functional and communicative ways that vary according tocontext.7. Students develop language proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, and writinginterdependently, but at different rates and in different ways.8. Students’ development of academic language and academic content knowledge areinter-related processes.9. Students' development of social, instructional, and academic language, a complex and long-term process, is the foundation for their success in school.10. Students’ access to instructional tasks requiring complex thinking is enhanced when linguistic complexity and instructional support match their levels of language proficiency.

WIDA Can-Do Descriptors

WIDA English Language Development (ELD) Standards

Standard 1: Social and Instructional language• English language learners communicate for Social and Instructional purposes within the school setting

Standard 2: The language of Language Arts• English language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Language

Arts

Standard 3: The language of Mathematics• English language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of

Mathematics

Standard 4: The language of Science• English language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Science

Standard 5: The language of Social Studies• English language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Social

Studies

Why Do We Need to Know So Much About ELLs, WIDA, and SEI?

Federal Policy states: 

ELL students are to be provided with language services

and equitable access to

standards-based instruction

The Office of Civil Rights oversees that school districts ensure equal educational opportunity for ELLs.

2001 No Child Left Behind supports ELL instruction.

To receive funding, school districts MUST:✓ Notify parents about ELL program placement within 30 days of

the start of school , ELL academic achievement, and language progress

✓ Have certified ELL teachers ✓ Provide effective and research-based ELL instruction✓ Establish English language proficiency benchmarks✓ Assess students’ language proficiency annually✓ Align content standards with state language proficiency

standards* MA participates in NCLB’s Title III grant program.

MA State Policy G.L.c 71A states:School Districts MUST:

✓ Educate ELLs in English using Sheltered English Immersion (SEI) strategies.

✓ Establish a process and criteria for determining whether students are ELLs upon initial enrollment.

✓ Notify parents of their child’s status and of their legal rights.

✓ Establish a process for placing students in a language program appropriate for their proficiency level.

✓ Assess students annually using ACCESS.

✓ Establish a process and criteria for determining whether ELLs are still considered ELLs at the end of each school year.

✓ Establish a process for exiting and monitoring students who are deemed proficient and can be reclassified as FLEP (Former Limited English Proficient).

✓ Have certified ELL teachers.

It is important to know that…• A classroom becomes an SEI classroom when there is

even one ELL student in that class.

• All MA content teachers must use SEI strategies if an ELL is in the classroom. Strategies simultaneously engage ELLs in developing grade-level content-area knowledge, academic skills, and increased English proficiency.

• Teachers use clear, direct, simple English and a wide range of scaffolding strategies to communicate meaningful input in the content area to students.

•

How does this impact me?

• In 2012, the Massachusetts Board of Education established additional regulations related to the teaching and learning of ELLs. The Rethinking Equity and Teaching for English Language Learners (RETELL) Initiative included a host of regulations related to teaching ELLs.

• Starting in 2016, or a year after teachers are placed in a RETELL cohort, core teachers and their administers must earn the SEI Endorsement.

• In order to renew or advance their license, all MA educators must obtain at least 15 PDPs in professional development related to the teaching and learning of ELLs.

RETELL InitiativeRethinking Equity and Teaching for English Language Learners

Goal: To improve academic achievement of ELLs and close proficiency gaps.

RETELL combines a new system of curriculum standards and assessment, endorsement and licensure requirements, professional development, and related supports for core academic teachers of

ELLs and the administrators who supervise or evaluate these teachers (i.e., principals, assistant principals, and supervisors /

directors).

Three components of RETELL:

▪ Provide professional development about SEI instruction and language development to all teachers and administrators▪ In 2016, ALL core content teachers in MA must earn the SEI Endorsement

and ALL teachers, even specialists, must complete 15 PDPs to renew their licenses.

▪ Implement the WIDA standards

▪ Assess students annually using ACCESS for ELLs

[District] Perspective • Goals for educators, services• Number of educators SEI endorsed:

______• Over the next two years, we aim

to…

• (input perspective for your district)

What is SEI?• Instructional approach that engages ELLs above the beginner level in developing

grade-level content-area knowledge, academic skills, and increased English proficiency.

• Content teachers use clear, direct, simple English and a wide range of scaffolding strategies to communicate meaningful input in the content area to students.

• Learning activities that connect new content to students' prior knowledge, that require collaboration among students, and that spiral through curriculum material, offer ELLs the grade-level content instruction of their English-speaking peers, while adapting lesson delivery to suit their English proficiency level.

What are the components of SEI?✓ Preparation (Parsing, tiering, creating lang obj)

✓ Building Background Knowledge

✓ Comprehensible Input

✓ Strategies

✓ Interaction

✓ Practice/Application

✓ Lesson Delivery

✓ Review and Assessment

Why SEI?

✓ Proven differentiation strategies enhance learning for all but are designed to increase the academic language skills of ELLs.

✓ Designed to increase reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills.

✓ Help build communication skills.✓ Help students use new content knowledge to engage in

academic discussions with peers.✓ Increase vocabulary knowledge and usage.

How is an SEI Lesson Plan Different?1. Content objectives

– Core content curriculum standards2. Language objectives

– Does your language objective specifically name the language domain the student will need to use? (R,W,L,S)

– Does it name the language function? (Blooms)– Does it mention a support (graphic org, word bank…)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVGbz4EqyGs

Sample Content vs. Language Objective

• Content Objective: “Students will be able to agree or disagree about the Anticipation statements written about (a topic).”

• Language Objective: “Following a model, students can orally or in writing justify a reason for agreeing or disagreeing with Anticipation statements about capital punishments.”

Sample Content vs. Language Objective

• Content Objective: “Students will be able to use vocabulary related to a content concept (such as transportation).”

• Language Objective: “Students will be able to orally use the sentence frame:

“When I go to _____, I travel by _______.”

Language Objective Sentence Frame

Students will be able to ___________

(identify, define, describe, list, retell orally, report, categorize, summarize) in writing / orally using ______________ (graphic organizer, visuals, adapted text, word bank, specific grammar focus, sentence frame…).

E.g., Students will be able to orally list three reasons for the start of the war using the passive voice and the sentence frame The war was fought because...

How is an SEI Lesson Plan Different?(Continued)

3. Build Background Knowledge: content, vocab

4. Tier Vocabulary

5. Provide Supplementary Materials: graphs, models, visuals, word banks, etc.

6. Use techniques and interaction strategies to make concepts clear.

7. Use adapted content and comprehensible input.

8. Use activities to practice language and content.

9. Review/Assess.

SEI Strategies Quick View: Vocabulary

• Four effective components of vocabulary instruction for ELLs include:1. Provide rich and varied language experiences2. Teach individual words3. Teach word learning strategies4. Fostering word consciousness

Tiered Vocabulary5. Tier 1: basic words such as clock, cold, happy, choice6. Tier 2: Essential to comprehension, i.e., process & transition, specificity,

idioms, clusters, polysemy (table, period), such as, avoid, adapt, point, break a leg, as well as

7. Tier 3: Low frequency, content specific; usually glossed, such as entomologist, endoplasmic

SEI Strategies Quick View: Vocabulary

• 7 Steps for Pre-teaching vocab (p121)• Think, Pair, Share• Sentence Frames• Think Aloud• Word Wheel• Snowball• Jigsaw

SEI Strategies Quick View: Reading

• Choral Reading• Reciprocal Teaching (Summarizer,

Questioner, Clarifier, Predictor)• Think Alouds• Numbered Heads Together p 156• Partner Reading (p144)

SEI Strategies Quick View: Writing

• Sentence or Paragraph Frames• RAFT• Cut and Grow Writing• Write Around• Information Gap• Ratiocination• Language Experience Approach• Models• Planning, Writing, Editing

SEI Strategies Quick View: Listening/Speaking

Interaction strategies:• Clock Buddies• Think-Pair-Share• Turn and Talk• Divide and Slide• Exit Tickets• Expert Groups

• Final Word• Gallery Walk• Snowballs• Continuum • Jigsaw• Numbered Heads Together

Possible videos

Informational language and content objectives• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVGbz4EqyGs

Why SIOP works• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TAiRVmOPCY Comprehensible input• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTnHonxao70