To: Michael Green
Re: October Monthly Special Services Report
From: Deb Kernen
Date: October 4, 2010
WPS ELL staff include Alisha Robison-1/2 time ELL teacher, Linda Sprague,
(7 hours), Jody McLendon (5.25 hours) & Dale Hillman (2 hours)-ELL Instructional Assistants. They have spent this month assessing all new ELL students with the Washington Language Proficiency Test to determine if they qualify for services. They have tested 14 new students & 15 students last June from Head Start which add to the total number of 81 students at WPS that qualify for ELL services. This years' program will provide small group language instruction, reading block instruction, as well as in-class support.
WIS ELL staff include: Ann Marie McLarrin-our Speech/Language Therapist-in collaboration with Alisha. We have gone from 11 students to 19 starting the year that are in need of ELL services. Ann Marie will be doing small group instruction focusing on teaching reading curriculum vocabulary and written language.
WMS/WHS-Lauren Cockrell provides ELL Reading & Writing instruction for 23 WMS/WHS students. She is also pushing and co-teaching in CWP, A1/G1 & Washington State History teaching within the general education setting providing scaffolding support in those content areas.
The Washington Language Proficiency Test (WLPT) results arrived this summer. We had 17 students exit ELL services based on this assessment! As you may recall, we also trained 15 staff from WPS in Guided Language Acquisition 6 days last year. They will be implementing successful teaching strategies designed to support our ELL students daily. Our ELL services are also able to provide research based curriculum instruction, while supporting/providing teachers with modified materials, in class support and information about each students Language Proficiency level yielded from the WLPT administered last February. This year our ELL staff will continue their efforts with teacher and instructional assistant professional development activities that help provide staff with the skills and strategies that help these students be successful. We hope to continue our Guided Language Acquisition Training (GLAD) for the second cohort at WPS this spring. This will ensure that our instruction for these students is differentiated enough so students learn the content as well as the necessary language skills on a daily basis. I will also be looking at expanding GLAD/SIOP training through other districts for WIS staff. I am also in the midst of posting an additional 3 hour ELL family liaison/IA position that will include the requirement for the person to be bi-lingual to help with our outreach/parent contacts and homework club.