Stories, Tools, and Pictures from WIDA 2017

Stories, Tools, and Pictures from WIDA 2017

This week a few members from our ELD department had the opportunity to attend the 2017 National WIDA conference. We had a great time learning, networking, and growing as a team! 

One highlight and big take away for me was from the keynote speaker Alberto M. Carvalho, Miami Dade Superintendent. He shared these 5 quick tips to transform education. We must work urgently as our students cannot wait!

5 quick tips to transform education- “There are no broken children”

• Leadership Matters
• Work on the edge, take risks!
• Data driven instructional leaders
• Differentiated instruction happens every classroom
• Effective teaching
• Teach children the subject matter, do not teach subject matter to the children
• Choice
• Digital convergence
• Reform happens fast! Our children cannot wait!
• Human Compassion
• Teaching without compassion lacks the connection of humanity

Other great resources we learned are from the Teaching Tolerance website. Take some time to check out the classroom resources here!

Remember one of BIG ROCKS is around oral academic language! As we think about how we are going to ensure that language objectives are posted in ALL classrooms, look to the Academic Language Toolkit to support you!

Pictures from WIDA 2017

Benefits of Co-Teaching For ALL Learners!

Presenting on Collaborative Instructional Cycles to Improve Outcomes for ELLs

Cristina Brisa (Butler), Shannon Kay (Horning), Sarahi Monterrey (North) and I
all learning and bonding together as a TEAM!

I even ran into our favorite Professional Development Specialist, Jose Medina from CAL!

What is translanguaging?

Congratulations New Dual Language Teacher

 for completing Teaching for Biliteracy Training

special thanks to Alyssa Breister for her leadership!

Check out this side by side anchor chart to bridge Language workshop! 

  What is translanguaging, really?

"translanguaging refers broadly to how bilingual students communicate and make meaning by drawing on and intermingling linguistic features from both languages" 

                                                           (Hornberger pg. 240) 

Opportunities and Benefits in Co-Teaching

Opportunity to Learn!!!

Register for Webinar Here

Benefits for ALL learners when their teachers collaborate according to 

Andrea Honigsfeld and Maria Dove

Look at these awesome Banting examples of K5 ELD from unit 2 that asks, What is a school community?

Dual Language Enrollment 2018-2019

ENROLLMENT BEGINS DECEMBER 1st

for 2018-2019

Program Wide See it Live 

Week of November 27-December 1st

	4K-1st Grade Family Information Sessions 6-7PM Nov 14, 28, Dec 12, Jan 16 Held at the Lindholm Building **Childcare will be offered
	5th grade to 6th grade transition to Middle School Information Session 5:45-6:45PM Nov 9 Held at the Waukesha Public Library
	8th to 9th grade transition to High School Information Session 7:00-8:00pm Nov 9 Held at the Waukesha Public Library

Fall 2017 Family Boletin

Boletin Bilingue 2017

Families will soon receive the Fall 2017 Boletin Bilingue-get yours here!

Global Education Quick LIst-easy access links

Principals, counselors and teachers have now all been shared essential tools and resources to engage
9-12 students with the opportunity to earn the Wisconsin Seal of Biliteracy or/and the Global Scholar Award.  This year 29 States offer the Seal-our SDW students were the first in the State to earn it.

ALL SDW students have the potential to earn both or either awards.  Last year we graduates 47 students, this year there appear to be well over 100 who are already prepared to earn!

Special thanks to 9-12 School Counselors and Global Ed Leaders: Maria Meyers, Tim Smilanich, Leslie Abruzzo and Melanie Forman (these are your site contacts)

In the future, work will be underway to build the continuum of Global Education and pathway awards in grades 6-8 and K5-5th.

Global Education Quicksheet 9-12
Item	Purpose	Audience
Student sign up	REQUIRED student sign up link.  This sign up is the only way we will be able to ensure each student takes the required assessments.  It also serves as a communication tool between sites.	Students
Seal of Biliteracy 2017 Celebration Youtube	Celebratory video.  SDW graduates in 2017 were the FIRST and only graduates in the State of Wisconsin to earn this award.  29 states recognize their multilingual graduates.	Everyone, but particularly parents, students and staff
Youtube Video for Students and Parents in English Powerpoint for Parent Presentation	Information Video to stream to students with voice over, or for Staffing viewing in  preparation for Powerpoint Presentation to Parents	Students, Parents, Staff
GEAC/SEAL Pathways/courses Posters 9-12	Posters to place within schools/classrooms to publicize and inform about the two awards. Posters clearly outline requirements, criteria and courses for each award 9-12	School Community
sdwglobal.weebly.com	The Official Global Education Website.  The History, Awards, Student Portfolio Resources and Forms are all here.	Everyone, public
Global Ed Awards at a Glance	This information is posted on the website, but this is a quick glance sheet	Staff

REFLECTION: Achieving RIGOR in ESL and Dual Language Classrooms 4K-10

As I reflect on this statement by Robert Marzano, I think about some of the classrooms our students might be learning in each week, and I wonder through their eyes, if they believe that we believe they are capable of achieving at high levels.  

All of us, when asked, certainly say that "of course this is the goal"; however, there are some specific indicators of rigorous learning environments.   These might serve our community in individual reflection on to what extent our students have guaranteed access to an equitable learning experience that maximizes rigor and their bilingualism, biliteracy and multicultural competency.  When they do not, what does that communicate to students about themselves in one period, one day, or over the course of several years of participation in a "program"-namely, the Dual Language Program and ESL Services.

The list below is a resource for reflection.  Reflect on a lesson you delivered in the last week, think deeply about the below indicators of RIGOR, and if it wasn't your best, think about why and what your next steps might be.  If it was spot on, think about how to maximize your skill and transfer it across lessons, but also how to bring this reflection to a team.  Got no one to talk to?  You can reflect and collaborate here flipgrid.com/j8w49sw

DL Thursday Update

DUAL LANGUAGE THURSDAY UPDATE

October 5, 2017

Celebrating our DUAL LANGUAGE BIOLOGY Class!!!

Students at South and North High School have launched our High School Dual Language Program enrolling in Dual Language Biology and Advanced Placement Spanish Language and Culture

We are so proud of our learners and the dedication of our Dual Language Teachers

Program Marketing

We are in the season to market our DL programs for 2018-2019!

• Cena con la maestra is planned at Blair, Banting, Bethesda and Heyer this month to build bridges between families whose children participate in our program
• T-SHIRT ORDERS due October 13th-NEW COLOR-FRAMBUESA
• DL Family information sessions for 4K-1st are planned 11/14, 11/28, 12/12 and 1/16 6-7PM
• 5th-6th and 8th-9th Transition Meeting scheduled for November 9th at the Waukesha Public Library
• 5th to 6th parents and students will meet 5:45-6:45pm
• 8th to 9th parents and students will meet 7:00-8:00pm

ORACY

This month we will begin to pilot VISITAS in our Dual Language Classrooms using the ORACY ADULT LEARNING FRAMEWORK CYCLE form.  Please know that your learners offer us a laboratory to use this tool and review it's potential to provide you with meaningful feedback that supports the specific practices required of multilingual teachers.  The intention is to get into every DL teaching environment during the month of October with this tool.

The tool will pick up on new teachers who are building skill, as well as skilled teachers building expertise.  Teachers will be involved in the process of using the tool to see student learning and teacher practice during Dual Language PLCs.  Your sites will communicate to you about those dates as they come up.

Teaching for Biliteracy 3: ORACY October 4, 2017

New DL Educators Participated in T4B-Session 3 on Oracy this week.  Special thanks to the leadership of each of our new teachers, Maria B, and Jadia K.

We are Academic Language Learners (ALLs)

We are Academic Language Learners (ALLs)

Have you ever  thought about the language that is necessary to access content in any K-12 classroom? In working closely with high school English Language Development programs, something has become very evident to me. I have noticed that high school teachers are very good at teaching their content. However, the language of the content is often forgotten about. In order for ALL students to have access to content, the language of core academic areas must be addressed. Classroom teachers need to start seeing themselves not only as experts of their content but also experts of the language that is used to access the curriculum.

While our English learners do benefit from specific attention to their needs, ALL students can benefit from strategies that we use with English learners. Many students come to school with many different experiences and backgrounds. Students who come from low socio-economic backgrounds benefit from many of the same supports that may be put in place for English learners.

As an illustration of this, I was leading some professional learning for a math department recently. During this session we learned about academic language and how it is the bridge to content. A math teacher raised his hand and said, “Now I know why my students only use pictures when trying to justify their answers in Algebra, they simply do not have the language to justify their answers.” This was exciting because I saw a light bulb come on for this content teacher and I continued to share this resource with him from Colorin Colorado. I have visited his classroom since and I have seen examples of him supporting language by addressing the language function, language structure, and task associated with the function through the use of a word wall.

This academic language function chart is a great tool because it addresses the Language Structures/Key Signal Words and Tasks Associated with Academic Language Functions. If you take a look at the resources you can see that there are structures/key signal words and tasks that we need to know in order to justify along with other language functions. The chart lays it out in a very user friendly way. It is common that this knowledge of language is taken for granted and teachers think that students should just know how to produce and understand this language.

Language Development Standards

All academic content areas have a specific language that is essential for students to know, understand, and use. This is what is referred to as academic language. The WIDA Consortium focuses on the role of English Language Development through their standards--The Language of Language Arts, The Language of Mathematics, The Language of Science, The Language of Social studies, and The Language of Social and Instructional Language. WIDA also has complementary strands--The Language of Music and Performing Arts, The Language of Humanities, The Language of Visual Arts.  Simply put, language standards are different from content standards because they address the language that is necessary to access the content.

Sociocultural context is critical to consider when using language in any setting.  According to the WIDA Consortium, the sociocultural contexts for language use involve the interaction between the person and the language environment, encompassing the register, genre/text type, topic, task/situation, participants’ identities and social roles. Can you think of any socio-cultural contexts that you need to know the language in order to be successful in a particular situation?

The Importance of Language Objectives in ALL classrooms

Having a language objective posted for every lesson can be helpful when addressing academic language through content. Having this precedence makes the point that language is valued in the classroom and that it is being taught. I see many examples of content objectives posted in classrooms so why shouldn’t ALL teachers also post a language objective? This way  students are aware of the language that they will need to access the content?

I challenge you to start thinking about academic language as the bridge that makes accessing content possible.  Not all students come to school with the same experiences, backgrounds, and understanding of the world. As educators it is our mission to ensure that ALL students learn and that we close the achievement gap. If we start seeing ourselves and our students as academic language learners ALLs, we may just be on the right path to do this difficult job.

Check out these pictures from Heyer Elementary that show evidence of ELD happening in the kindergarten and first grade classrooms!