Mr. Perez's Class Links - Updated 5.9.06

Mr. Perez - Walsh Elementary School
Attitude By Charles Swindoll "The longer I live the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company, a church a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past, we cannot change the fact that people act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you, we are in charge of our Attitudes."

Useful Websites
Starfall Classroom Connect Polish Translation Center for Applied Linguistics WIDA Standards Wizard Teaching Tolerance

Teaching Notes
Issues and Questions regarding English Language Learners in The Mainstream Classroom April 3, 2006 As most of you know District 104 started ACCESS testing this year. This assessment takes a snapshot of English language growth in a multifaceted way. For starters it captures receptive language (reading and listening) and expressive language (speaking and writing). It goes further than what we have done in the past with LAS because this picture includes the following four domains in the content areas: Mathematics, Science, Social Studies and Language Arts. Traditionally ESL instruction has focused primarily on the Social Instructional aspects of the English language. This is also part of the ACCESS assessment. Focusing on Social Instructional English is not necessarily a bad thing, but now the consortium of states that put together the ACCESS has raised the bar significantly because they included the growth of English in the content areas. I propose to you (the mainstream teacher) the following points for thought: A minimum number of minutes a week of ESL for all ELL's to not be less than 160 minutes. To consider these minutes at the beginning of the year as you prepare your schedule. Just as P.E. is blocked off so should the 160 minutes a week for ESL. For each mainstream teacher to choose these times versus the pull out teacher trying to figure out when to pull the students. For example, Monday - 40, Tuesday - 40, Wednesday - 40, Friday - 40. From this point on the mainstream teacher and the resource teacher can put together a program that addresses the needs of the students in her/his classroom. To consider, push in, pull out and allowing the resource teacher to teach some of the lessons to the entire class. Most of what we do for ELLs benefits any student. While the future is uncertain, what is not uncertain is whether we will have ELLs in our classroom. The question is how many: 10%, 30% or will it be more than 50%? I am learning that the product of an elementary school (our students) is molded in the hands of not one special ed, bilingual or mainstream teacher but by the hands of this collective of instructors. April 5, 2006 What do I do when I get a student that doesn't speak any English? The answer to this question really has multiple sources and more than one perspective. First the sources, the experienced teachers (not novices like myself) do many things already when they are presented with this challenge. If you have never had a monolingual ELL student in your classroom you belong to an ever shrinking exclusive club that will not exist very soon. So my first highly recommended source is experienced teachers and not only at your grade level. I have learned more about teaching from "push in" (going into the mainstream classrooms) than all the workshops I have gone to in four years. The next source is your Language Assistance Program teacher. This person has different titles; he/she is the ESL, bilingual teacher, resource teacher, or sometimes Type 29. This teacher while not as experienced in large group settings usually has an expertise in language acquisition. This teacher really needs to be guided in what your student needs help with. This teacher can compliment what you are already doing for the rest of your class. Besides testing the new student step one for this resource teacher is to find out, regardless of the native language, what kind of academic background your new student brings to the classroom. Most importantly ask for help from this resource teacher and put this student (that doesn't speak English) on the maximum minutes as soon as possible. There is one other source that I have used and that is the special education teacher. He/she has many strategies and tools already to service students with different learning styles. The mainstream teacher is the expert on what is best for their student. For the resource teacher to best take advantage of those limited minutes they need to hear from the mainstream teacher. Now for the perspectives, from the students' (monolingual ELLs) most of the time; They don't know they are not going back. They didn't get a chance to say goodbye to their relatives, friends, teacher, pet and so on. They are probably living with new relatives or friends of their parents and having their personal space reduced significantly. They see their parents less than they did in their country of origin. If they are the oldest they are responsible for caring for their siblings. Their parents can't help them with the materials they have to learn because they don't speak English either. From the teachers' perspective; Pictures, picture and more pictures Realia, realia and more realia. (More on this soon.) Comprehensible input and and comprehensible output. (More on this soon.) TPI, TPI and more TPI. (More on this soon.) Ask the student to bring any books they may have brought from their homeland. If your student is a Spanish speaker ask for all the texts in Spanish from the LAP department. These texts are not for you (the mainstream teacher) but rather for the resource teacher to use in providing native language support. These texts can be used by the primary care givers at home to support your student in the work the rest of the class is doing. Ask about and become familiar with the WIDA standards. These can really help you (the mainstream teacher) understand what performance standards an ELL student is going to be able to meet based on their language growth. Realize that the ACCESS measures how much the ELLs have acquired in English in the content areas. Sharing your experiences, questions or comments regarding ELLs are extremely welcomed.