Digital tools – kcmellblog

Critical Design Questions for School Websites

I find significant gaps in eSchool News’ suggestions for developing school websites. School districts must also consider how to ensure equal access to digital communications for parents and guardians whose dominant language is something other than English. Sadly I don’t see the needs of ELL families addressed anywhere in this article. As a significant part of a school’s website design and functionality, it is my experience that districts also need to ask:

Does our district offer ELL parents language-translated versions of our website? If not, at least offer https://translate.google.com/manager/website/

Does our district offer opportunities for ELL parents to gain hands-on training to learn how to navigate web resources? A great example of how a local Missouri district solved this issue can be found in the April post featuring Center School District who shared how they support parents as learners.

Center Schools Provide ELL Parent Digital Literacy

Does our district offer resources to connect homes that are disenfranchised from accessing digital communications? Deb Socia is the queen of this topic nationwide and provides constant updates about the progress she and others are making to bridge – and one day eradicate – the digital divide.

http://nextcenturycities.org/about-ncc

Please ensure that all families can access your district’s digital communications. Doing so will enable them to participate meaningfully in their child’s education.

What insights and resources for purposeful web design can you share? Leave a reply.

Missouri Updates ELL Screening Process 2016-2017

As a part of federal requirements, districts are required to identify incoming students who qualify as English language learners (ELLs). Since the 2010-2011 academic year, Missouri districts have used the paper based W-APT screening assessment provided by WIDA.

With the move to online English proficiency testing, WIDA has also been working on an updated Online Screener – to replace the W-APT for grades 1-12. Originally, the screener was to be available prior to the start of the academic year, but the release date has been pushed back to an anticipated date of October 2016.

The W-APT Kindergarten screener will remain as is.

Implementation Schedule

For more information about ELL Screening procedures, please reference the 2016-2017 ELL Screening Process guide, found on the DESE website at:

https://dese.mo.gov/sites/default/files/asmt-ell-screening-process-guide-1617.pdf

If you have questions please contact the assessment section at 573-751-3545 or assessment@dese.mo.gov.

KCPS Uses Data to Drive Academic Success for ELLs

I can’t say enough good things about Allyson Hile, Director of ELL Services at Kansas City Public Schools (KCPS), and her entire staff. On April 11, Allyson and Stephanie Easley, ELL Assessment Coordinator at KCPS, gave an informative presentation to ELL Coordinators from surrounding districts. During the presentation Allyson and Stephanie shared their strategies for comparing MAP achievement to language proficiency, enabling them to make better informed decisions about cohort improvements and successes.

Recently they also began making use of new data reports available from WIDA through ELLevation, a data management software specifically for ACCESS data. The data digs are paying off, enabling KCPS to see more than just student trends, but also cohort trends that point to teaching practices having the greatest impact on improving the academic performance of ELLs.

Near the end of the presentation, Allyson talked about a highly valuable yet unintended outcome of their hard work – which has been the ability to use this data in district and building-level conversations about student success. Given that the KCPS is home to over 4,000 ELLs speaking about 40 different first languages, building and classroom teacher buy-in is necessary to sustain the supports the ELL staff can offer.

With Allyson’s permission, I’m happy to provide a downloadable version of the step-by-step PowerPoint that was shared, Using data for ELL Success.

Additional questions or sharing ideas of how you’re using data in your district may be posted as a reply to this story, or you may contact Allyson Hile, Director of ELL Services, KCPS at ahile@kcpublicschools.org

Center Schools Provide ELL Parent Digital Literacy

On Monday, April 11, Linda Innes, ELL Coordinator and ELL teacher at Center School District, shared step-by-step examples of how she and her staff enlisted the help of area multilingual high school students to help ELL parents access and utilize the district’s school-to-home digital communication, Infinite Campus.

You can download this powerpoint, How Digital Literacy for ELL Parents Improves Parent[2], created by Linda and embedded with permission, for a step-by-step visual of how she and her staff made the parent trainings possible. Embedded in the powerpoint are four live action video of students and parents working together with coaching from Linda. (Be sure you’re in slide show mode to access the video embeds, which can be found by hovering over the clip art characters on slide 7.)

Linda also generously shares the visual guide she created to help parents and their digital student-tutors create passwords for the Infinite Campus system. Download it from this link, Infinite Campus Parent Portal User Guide2015[1]

Being a forward thinker (or backward planner), Linda knew she needed to be prepared to assist ELL parents with those preliminary log-in passwords that challenge even English-dominant users. She created a buddy system to connect parents and digital tutors which turned out to be an undertaking of its own. In this separate, short video, Linda provides a visual of the notebook she designed to organize the matches between parents and digital student-tutors.

The ELL parent digital literacy training was arranged on the same evening as the district’s annual ELL family dinner. What a great way to combine engagement and involvement.

A huge thank you and kudos to Linda Innes, her staff, the student volunteers, and the entire Center School District for putting ELL family needs at the forefront of parent engagement!

You may leave replies or questions for Linda on the KCMELLblog and I’ll forward them, or you can write to Linda directly at linnes@center.k12.mo.us

Appropriateness of Online Discussions in the ELL Classroom

Last semester I posted a blog about multicultural youth literature. A favorite book on my recommendation list is Sold.

Here’s how a National Writing Project found that “Sold” fostered immigrant students’ abilities to participate in on-line discussion groups in meaningful ways.

How have you incorporated Sold in your classroom?

A framework for speaking and listening lessons

The link (below) takes you to a step-by-step guide for scaffolding speaking and listening. I created and used this lesson successfully in my ELL classroom. Of special note, the lesson includes pre- and post- formative assessments — an often over-looked part of listening and speaking tasks.

Watch the video here!

(Created in Adobe Voice. In and of itself a highly useful tool for your speaking and listening tool box.)

How will you modify this lesson for your classroom?