School Profile

Foundations and Methods of English Language/Literacy Development and Content

Instruction
Nina Godette
Upon completing a school profile of my current school, I do believe we are
responding to our ELs needs, I also think there is room for growth and improvement.
Instruction is provided in a tradition/content based ESL. Students are showing growth as
seen in MAP results from 2022-23 school year to BOY scores for 2023-24 school year.
Whole group curriculum provides scaffolds for questioning to support ELs of varying
levels. EL curriculum also provides scaffolds during small group for students of varying
English proficiency levels.
All identified ELs K-6 are serviced with 30 minutes a day with ELD time provided
by the classroom teacher using an extension of the whole group ELA curriculum,
Amplify Core Knowledge, called Language Studio. ELs who are also reading and writing
below grade level receive another 30 minutes of tier 2 or 3 intervention with a reading
specialist through pullout services. Unfortunately, there are not any paras that speak our
EL population's languages. Staff are directed to use google translate while in the
classroom and when they need to communicate with parents who do not speak English
they are to contact an outside service through phone to act as a translator. Staff are not
diverse in culture background and no classroom teachers at our school speak the
languages of the EL population. No materials are available in the students’ home
languages as many of our EL students are not proficient in their home language either.
This is an area I identify that the school can improve on. While we read many trade
books that connect to various cultures, materials are not presented in a variety of
languages.
While talking with a coworker her beliefs on EL students’ backgrounds and
cultures can affect their learning in both a positive way and a limited way. She states
“because our curriculum teaches a worldly view some ELs come in the prior knowledge
that connects to content learned. Most of the time our content is so rich and rigorous our
ELs have a hard time accessing it because the vocabulary and facts are so rich they
have a hard time understanding and accessing the content.” Through my own
experiences and hearing from teachers on campus it seems teachers have to do a lot of
scaffolding during lessons to give ELs a chance to access the content. These scaffolds
include charts, videos, pictures, and real life artifacts. The scaffolds and various
accommodations made helps students to be more successful as seen in various forms
of data both standardized and classroom. Curriculums/programs teachers at my current
site use consist of Language Studio curriculum, GLAD strategies, and the use of
Thinking Maps. Teachers are concerned that as students get older (3rd and up) it
becomes harder for students to access the curriculum because the vocabulary and
content are so rigorous.