Multilingual Learners (MLL)

 English as a Second Language is a program designed for children who are new to the country a chance to learn English or improve their English language skills. It is a special curriculum designed to teach these students English language skills. These skills may include listening, speaking, reading, writing, and content vocabulary.  The children start to receive these services as early as Kindergarten and continue to receive these services until they are proficient.

Kindergarten-  The focus this year is for the children to be able to answer simple questions that include who, what, where, when, why, and how.  They will also learn vocabulary that involve the school, home, body parts, colors, places, foods, and more. In reading the children will learn to identify the different letters of the alphabet and the different sounds that they make. They will also learn to blend the letters together to make cvc words. They will also be taught to match the cvc words to the correct picture. Also they will be introduced to read simple sentences as well as write simple sentences.

First Grade-   Many of the children receiving these services are the children who received the ELL services in Kindergarten. There are also children who are new to the country that will start to receive these services as well. They will continue to focus on all skills necessary. When speaking to the children and asking questions they will be taught to answer some questions with detail. Also in writing the children will be encouraged to sound out their words when writing. This will also help improve their writing skills as well as reading skills.  In reading we will review the letters of the alphabet and focus on the different vowels and the sounds they make.  Children will also focus on word families to help improve their reading skills. Pictures will also be provided to help with the identification and understanding of the different vocabulary words.

Second Grade- Many of the children will still continue to receive ESL services in the Second Grade. We also have children who are new to the country that will start to receive the services also. When speaking our second graders will participate in conversations amongst their peers.  They will also work on following directions when spoken to. In reading the children will also work on word families. Pictures will also be provided to help with the identification and understanding of the different vocabulary words. They will work on  answering  questions based on passages read as well as comparing texts. In writing they will learn to give their opinion, and write informative texts on a given topic. 

Stand Alone ENL

Students are receiving Integrated ENL in the Wonders program through a push in model.  Newcomers (Entering and Emerging students) are also receiving Stand Alone ENL to learn BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills). In small groups, students work on conversational fluency, the ability to talk about objects or experiences face-to-face. Eventually, we work on CALP (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency) which is the oral and written language needed to succeed in school subjects. Students are working with Ready,Set,Go! Newcomers by Continental Press. Unit 1 covers Building Blocks (colors, shapes, numbers, the Alphabet, time, Days of the Week, Months of the Year, weather, temperature, Seasons, Capitalization.) Unit 2 cvers Sounds of English (sight words, consonant sounds, short vowels, long vowels, rhyming words, counting sounds in words, consonant blends )Unit 3 covers Challenges of the English Language (changing sounds in words, vowel teams, silent e, two-syllable words, hard and soft c and g, final y, silent letters, kn , wr and Unit 4 All About Me (Introducing myself, greetings, goodbyes, address, phone number, Where I am from, my family, my relatives, how I feel)

Units of Study for Integrated ENL

Wonders

Throughout the Wonders curriculum, there is an ELL Shared Read which contains the same story and content, but includes built in scaffolds to provide access to ELls. The ENL teacher demonstrates how to utilize these scaffolds. There is a main question in a separate box on the page before each section. There are words in bold print that are defined in a glossary on the same page which are also translated into Spanish. I would point out any cognates at this time. There are questions, which are answered with sentence stems and a word bank. I teach the method of going back to the text, underlining the sentence and then finding the write word to write in the sentence stem. Finally at the end of each section there is a Main Question Revisited which gives the students the opportunity to use POQITA (Part of the Question In the Answer).

Third Grade: ENL teacher provides scaffolds for the Reading Strategy of Ask and Answer Questons (asking questions, before, during, and after reading to help better understand text) and Reading Skills of sequence (the order in which events happen) Picture cards are used to explain vocabulary.

Fourth Grade: Through videos, graphic organizers such as Venn Diagrams, and pointing out cognates, students are able to deconstruct complex text. We teach the writing process of RAP in which we Restate the question, Answer the question, and Prove your answer through text evidence. We go back to the text, find and underline.