REPORTS TO THE BOARD

ELL Report

To: Michael Green

From: Darcy Soto

Date: 9/16/2021

Re: September 2021 Board Report

ELL/State Transitional Bilingual Intervention Program and Translation Services

• WHS: The high school ELL team is excited to have the ELL students back full-time this school year. As a beginning activity, ELL students wrote an "All About Me" paragraph in their notebooks describing themselves to their classmates. After having their peers proofread their writing they typed it and then made a video recording. Students enjoyed this opportunity to get to know each other better and to practice their writing, listening, and speaking skills. 
• WMS: The middle school staff is also very thankful to be back full-time serving ELL students. The WMS ELL teacher, Pam Dietrich, works closely with families and CORE teachers to support ELL students with engagement and language acquisition by setting goals, providing accommodations, and monitoring academic achievement. Additionally, an impressive number of ELL middle school students were able to exit the program through the annual summative assessment last spring. All students who accomplished this goal received a gift bag as a celebration of their achievement.
• Elementary: Elementary ELL teams are working on student data analysis in order to determine the next steps for serving students and supporting their successful language acquisition. The team has identified the most critical needs and will be providing specific instruction to those students during scheduled times to boost their language learning. Another high priority for this level is bolstering teacher efficacy around supporting language development. In support of this work, we will be implementing the “ELL Hot Tip” of the week that will provide teachers with a technique or strategy that they can try out in their classrooms.
• District Level: Over the summer, we received our ELPA 21 score reports and a total of 14 students were able to exit the program. We are working with the schools to coordinate a celebration to honor their achievement. Additionally, parent notification letters are being sent out to all of our families this week. Once these are completed, we will shift our focus to testing and identifying the new students who qualify for ELL services.