Collaborative WIDA Tools for Serving ELs in the Classroom

1. Collaborative WIDA Tools for Serving ELs in the Classroom Many roads, one destination.

3. Rita Platt Reading Specialist/Media St. Croix Falls School District St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin ritaplatt@hotmail.com

4. Questions to be Answered • What’s WIDA got to do with co-teaching? • What are the WIDA Proficiency Levels? • How can we use the WIDA tools to differentiate and motivate?

5. Relax … Everything (and more) is on The Wikihttp://www.mplsesl.wikispaces.com/

6. WIDA Philosophy in a Nutshell

7. WIDA: The Bigger Nutshell • Language is the toolfor learning! • LEP’s are in mainstream classrooms. (95% of the time in MPS.) • LEP’s use their Limited English to learn in 5 basic contexts (Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, Math, Social & Amplification.) • EL’s English -- no matter how limited– is an asset for learning. You work with what you’ve got! • WIDA is designed to help allteachersmodify the language demands of instruction to provide LEP students with meaningful access to content.

9. The Old Way of Looking at Co-Teaching

10. Benefits of Collaboration • Shared responsibility for educating all students • Ideal structure for transfer of teacher expertise • Two heads are needed…these are complex needs! • Shared understanding and use of standards, curriculum, & assessment data • Shared ownership & accountability for teaching and interventions

11. The New Way + The Surgical Model

12. Instructional Tips • KNOW the MN standards. • UNDERSTAND the assessments. • Be ready to DIFFERENTIATE (MODIFY) instruction. • Clearly display an agenda for the class, which includes the standard(s) to be covered and any additional goals • Strive to demonstrate parity in instruction whenever possible by switching roles often • Share common tools…WIDA tools • Together, “Act as if!”

13. WIDA to the rescue!

14. THIS IS WIDA! (“Yeah, but what does that look like?”) Standard 1 – Social & Instructional Language (SIL) • English language learners communicate for social and instructional purposes in the school setting. Standard 2 – Language of Language Arts (LoLA) • English language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Language Arts. Standard 3 – Language of Mathematics (LoMA) • English language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Math. Standard 4 – Language of Science (LoSC) • English language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Science. Standard 5 – Language of Social Studies (LoSS) • English language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Social Studies. But what might that look like in a particular lesson in a particular unit? Differentiation Remember! language serves content learning But what does that look like at different grades? With different language domains? (Speak/Listen/ Read/Write) What students can do with language BROADLY The student’s LEVEL

15. Performance Definitions

16. Good … but still too hard …

18. WIDA Proficiency Levels (Nutshell Perspective) WIDA Levels describe the difficulty of the language we can reasonably expect a student to be able to use for grade-level content learning.

19. Your Data

20. Lyndale’s Data 7 months old… TTYP: Thoughts? Ideas? Patterns?

21. Data-Based Teaching • Assess • Analyze results • Set goals for student growth-plan interventions to meet goals • Teach for growth toward goals • Reassess • Tweak plans Repeat  Repeat  Repeat Continuous Improvement Model

23. Up the Triangle = A More Specific View But what does that look like at different grades? With different language domains? (Speak/Listen/ Read/Write) Performance Defs informed by the CVC Criteria What students can do with language BROADLY

24. Can-Do Descriptors

26. Language Control is clearer in the productive domains – speaking and writing – where it refers to the extent to which errors affect comprehension. In the receptive domains (Listening & Reading), think of “language control” as referring to how closely the speaker has to monitor his/her language to be sure not to lose the listeners.

27. Good … but can it be easier???

28. The Student-Friendly Can-Do’s Go to the Wiki for the Can-Do’s in Spanish!

29. Student-Friendly’s do NOTReplace Can Do’s Remember: These do NOT come from WIDA! They come from John & Rita

30. Peek at the Can Do’sTTYP • Think about your students: • Do they seem like accurate depictions of what they were able to do? • How could you use the Can-Do’s to inform your teaching?

31. Data-Based Decision Making • Assess • Analyze results • Set goals for student growth-plan interventions to meet goals • Teach for growth toward goals • Reassess • Tweak plans Repeat  Repeat  Repeat Continuous Improvement Model

32. Why Share “Kid-Friendly” Can Do’s? • Students and teacher(s) have a clear target • Makes Can Do’s into “I can…’s” • Facilitates differentiation • Post them? Refer to them? Give students Can Do booklets? Have level 2 and level 3 set goals?

36. http://mplsesl.wikispaces.com/MDE-WIDA-ProgressMonitor

37. They’re on the Wiki!

38. Up the Triangle = A More Specific View but …we now have enough to work with…. Student Friendly Can-Do’s But what does that look like at different grades? With different language domains? (Speak/Listen/ Read/Write) Performance Defs informed by the CVC Criteria What students can do with language BROADLY

39. Look for CVC Think about—is the same knowledge still tested/reviewed?

40. MPIs = Differentiation in action! 3 ½ Steps Toward Differentiating with WIDA

42. Lyndale’s Data

43. USE THE 3 ½ STEPS TO DIFFERENTIATE USING THE WIDA LENS • Reformat activities or aspects or steps of a lesson to match language needs • Determine the WIDA level • Design an analogous learning activity appropriate for lower levels • 3 ½ . Consider levels of support/scaffolding that might be needed

45. 3rd Grade Social Studies: Identify the 3 branches of government and their primary functions. • Check the lesson with the CVC, what level is it pitched to? • Use the Can Do Descriptors and the 3 ½ Steps to Differentiation to modify the lesson for a level 3. • Share your work with someone else.

46. Try it! • Choose a standard • Think of a lesson you use to teach it • Look at the CVC to determine what level your lesson is pitched to • Look at the Can-Do Descriptors and use the 3 ½ Steps to Differentiation to modify it down (and up if needed) the levels

47. Illustrate what students can do at each level in context (in the content area) Remember language serves content learning Student-Friendly Can-Do’s What students can do with language broken down by domain (Speaking, listening, reading, writing) What students can do with language BROADLY

48. SOEI

49. Focused Instruction

50. Questions to be Answered • What are the WIDA Proficiency Levels? • How can we use the WIDA tools to differentiate and motivate? • What’s WIDA got to do with co-teaching?