Warren County Public Schools Professional Development for Teachers of English Language

Learners

Deb DrescherWarren County Public Schools

Warren County Public Schools’ Title III (ELL) program is now in school improvement status and has identified three goals to address the instructional needs of our ELL students.

One goal is our school division will increase LEP student achievement in reading by improving the ELL pass rate on the SOL Reading/Language Arts tests for grades 3-11.

Professional Development Purpose

Professional development plan:

Help our reading and English teachers increase academic vocabulary and incorporate it with writing skills for all ELL students

Provide opportunities to learn effective, research-based strategies for teaching English Language Learners

Professional Development SupportProfessional Development Support

Warren County Virginia Home Language 2011-2012 Data

Warren County Limited English Proficient AYP Group and Provided Services

What levels of service are the English Language Learning students in your classroom receiving and how do you know they are making progress?

Pair and Share

Instruction of the five big ideas from the report from the National Reading Panel: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension.

Oral fluency in English is associated with comprehension and writing skills.

Oral fluency in the first language can be used to facilitate literacy development in English.

Six Components of Developing Literacy in English Language Learners

Individual differences contribute significantly to English literacy development.

Adequate assessments are essential for gauging individual strengths and weaknesses.

Home language experiences can have a positive impact on literacy achievement.

August, Diane & Shanahan, Timothy (2006) Developing Literacy in Second Language Learners: Report of the National Reading Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth, Laurence Irbaum Associates, 2006.

Six Components of Developing Literacy in English Language Learners (continued)

What percentage of time during a one hour lesson do you think students are doing the talking your classroom?

How do you think oral proficiency in English is associated with English comprehension and writing skills?

Pair and Share

Enhance academic language by: Introducing new basic academic subject-specific

vocabulary.Structure multiple opportunities for peer-to-peer interaction.Increase speaking, listening, reading comprehension and

writing skills.Support language interactions with review/preview of

academic language

Bongolan, Rain S., Moir, Ellen (2005) Accelerating Academic Language Development Six Key Strategies for Teachers of English Language Learners, New Teacher Center @UC Santa Cruz.

Teaching Academic Vocabulary

Evaluating English language learning is vital to a student’s acquisition of both social and academic vocabulary.

The English Learning Progress Rubric will be used at the beginning of the school year, mid-year, and at the end of the school year.

Each Limited English Student will be assessed using this rubric.

English Learning Progress Rubric

Progress will also be monitored through: County-wide reading or English benchmark assessments County-wide writing assessments

Final proof of academic progress is the Virginia Standards of Learning

Assessment

2012-2013 Professional Development Professional development will be guided through the Survey for

Instructional Practices for ELL Teachers.

Additional Assessments

The professional development plan is to: Help our reading and English teachers increase academic vocabulary

and incorporate it with writing skills for all ELL studentsProvide opportunities to learn effective, research-based strategies for

teaching English Language Learners This presentation is just the beginning of this process.Our professional development goal is our school division will increase

LEP student achievement in reading by improving the ELL pass rate on the SOL Reading/Language Arts tests for grades 3-11.

Thank-you for your participation and commitment to help our ELL students learn and achieve.

The Plan