Social and emotional needs of ELL students

1. Social and emotional needs of ELL students What strategies work?

2. Problem… • Academic performance is low due to the social and emotional needs of English Language Learners • How do we solve this problem?

3. Objectives for the Day… • Participants will gain a greater understanding of ELL students’ social and emotional needs. • Participants will gain a stronger appreciation and mastery of strategies to address ELL students’ needs. • Participants will develop plans for establishing the supports and strategies for ELL students, particularly with ways to establish effectiveness on how to help the academic performance of ELL students

4. Terms and Definitions • Academic Language: The language students need in order communicate effectively about a subject. • English Language Learner (ELL): A student who is the process of acquiring the English language and whose first language is not English. • English Language Development (ELD): Classes designed to assist English Language Learners. • Specially Designed Academic Instruction In English (SDAIE):Teaching strategies for teaching academic content to English Language Learners. • Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SOIP): An instructional model developed to facilitate high quality instruction for ELLs in content area teaching.

5. “The population of children from immigrant families is growing faster than any other group of children in the United States” (Hernandez, Denton, & Macartney, 2008). “Recent U.S. Department of Education statistics reveal that over 5 million school-age children are categorized as English Learners (ELs)” (NCELA, 2011). Diversity in Schools

6. Agenda… • ELL students on the increase • Reflection on our own experiences • Social and emotional needs for ELL students • Strategies and supports to address ELL students’ social and emotional needs to help academic performance

7. Question What support programs are in place that address these issues for EL students in our school? How are we currently helping ELL students succeed academically?

8. Think - Pair - Share • What strategies do you currently use in your classroom to help the social and emotional needs of students? • Are there any immigrant groups are represented in our schools? • Does our school have specific educational and/or support programs for the children of these ELL families?

9. Teaching STRATEGIES for ELL’s • Physical involvement with language • The use of multiple mediums to present information • Opportunities to demonstrate language comprehension through physical expression • A low-stress environment for language performance • Success can be independent of language performance • A large amount of interactions with other students

10. What does this look like? Students taking responsibility for their own learning Playing to students strengths Having students monitor their own goals and achievements HOW? Model Explain Give examples Fade Individualize

11. Instructional Strategies Slow down your speech and use shorter sentences, present tense of words, synonyms, examples, gestures, and demonstrations. Avoid expressions or sayings that are only common in the United States. Use as many mediums as possible to convey information: oral, written, videos, teacher demonstration, student demonstration, etc. Use think-alouds and think-pair-shares when asking questions, and don't forget to give students enough time to process the question. Use bilingual handouts and cue lists. Use metaphors and imagery for cues.

12. Environmental Strategies • Create print-rich environments using bulletin boards with articles on sports and physical activity, gameplay strategies, words of the day. • Use visual displays, portable white boards, and posters when giving instructions. • Create and displayword walls which are displays of high-frequency words for a unit, arranged alphabetically.  

13. Goals for attaining Cultural Competence • Know and question values, commitments, beliefs, prejudices, and use of power and influence • Understand varied contexts and situations and accept challenges presented • Understand cultural history of school, community, and parents

14. There are several educational practices and conditions that researchers and experts consider important for all ELL students’ learning and school achievement. These include: • The entire school staff is committed to improving student achievement and has high academic expectations for all students. • Curriculum that meets the state’s academic standards for what children should know and be able to do at each grade level • Use of effective bilingual or English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) instruction • Support in the student’s first language for learning academic content • Use of research-based instruction-especially in reading and math-in the child’s general education classroom; and • Training for all teachers (not just bilingual and ESL teachers) in how to effectively teach ELL students • Use of achievement test results to identify students who are struggling, and to make a plan for helping them. • Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the school is responsible to provide parents information, in a language that parents understand, about the learning environment: This includes: • Whether the curriculum is research-based, especially in reading and math • Whether teachers are “highly qualified,” as required by NCLB • The level of your child’s skill in speaking English • What teaching method and program the school uses to teach your child English • How the English language instruction will help your child learn English and, at the same time, meet state academic standards • The requirements to finish the English language learning program and how long it will take to complete • How your child’s achievement test scores compare to other students’ in the school and district

15. After thinking about these questions and strategies… IS YOUR SCHOOL IN NEED OF SUPPORT? As a test, we will have five elementary schools across the district implement supports in their classroom for the 2018-2019 school year. (Burr, ESM, Milner, Moylan, Sanchez) Administration will be on board with resources, and I will be here to help with creation, ideas and supports that are proven to be successful. We will meet quarterly to discuss positives and negatives we are noticing. I will be here for support throughout the time being Sarah.Oriente@hartfordschools.org We will then go back and review the progress made, and implement strategically throughout the district to other schools that need more support.

16. Resources • GreatSchools Staff | May 20, 2015 Print article. (n.d.). Helping English Language Learners Who Struggle in School. Retrieved from https://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/english-language-learners-who-struggle/ • Hernandez, D. L., Denton, N. A., & Macartney, S. E. (2008). Children in immigrant families: Looking to America’s future. Social Policy Report, 22, 3-22. • Teaching Strategies for English Language Learners. (n.d.). Retrieved March 19, 2018, from http://www.supportrealteachers.org/strategies-for-english-language-learners.html • 10 Superb Learning Strategies That Teach ELL Students to Teach Themselves. (2017, July 27). Retrieved April 05, 2018, from https://www.fluentu.com/blog/educator-english/ell-strategies/