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Imelda often asks me for recommendations for read alouds in Spanish and in English. She knows that I personally purchase children's books that are engaging, support science standards and are appropriate linguistically for my students. I shared a Padlet with Imelda with books that I own in both Spanish and English that she could borrow for read alouds or that I recommended for her to check out.

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My students and I use Survive the Sound in late April and early May further learn about salmon. STS is a technology online that allows students to track fish migration and to make inferences about how fish migration is impacted by external factors. I share this resource with my grade level every year, especially since it supports our field trip, writing and science standards.

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In one of our Shelton SD units, learning about first and third person was the focus. After modeling and practicing together, we created audio messages for one of our classmates who was out of state during his birthday. This application was authentic and relevant.

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Opportunity to Demonstrate Learning via Oral Language

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Opportunity to Demonstrate Learning via Oral Language

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I give opportunities to students to share their learning in an additional way through verbal communication. This allows students to practice their message before recording themselves and brings down the affective filter because they have more time and writing is not an obstacle. Students may translanguage when doing this so that I am aware of all their learning regardless of whether it is English or Spanish.

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I employed this strategy after introducing them to rays, segments and triangles. The purpose was to have students analyze, practice oral language, compare and contrast and make claims about traits they notice about the objects on each side. This is a strategy taught to Math Fellows from OSPI and I learned this from Jennifer Dawson while I was observing her class to further my math instruction.

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I mentor Imelda A on her endeavor to pursue her National Board certification, the highest certification available to teachers and something that only about 10% of active teachers in WA have achieved. I mentor her by giving her feedback on her lessons, her writing, other aspects of her instruction and editing/revising her writing.

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Presenters from UW at Summer Summit Recognized my Skills by Using My Classroom as an Example in their Presentation of Inclusive Environments

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Presenters from UW at Summer Summit Recognized my Skills by Using My Classroom as an Example in their Presentation of Inclusive Environments

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This picture was used to show the entire Shelton School District what an inclusive environment looks like. Although this picture was from the 2023-24 school year, my evaluator from 2023-24 did not "notice" this inclusive environment.

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At Summer Summit, I showed up on time, stayed for the entire time, interacted with colleagues, I interacted with presenter, I ate with colleagues and even took pictures of slides that I felt were very important.

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Knowledge of Culture and Background to Choose Read Alouds

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Knowledge of Culture and Background to Choose Read Alouds

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I learned about transportation in Guatemala and other parts of Latin America and I incorporated it into a read aloud in order to make a skill accessible that was part of the district unit plans, ask and answer questions. As those of us who have basic knowledge in educating MLLs, lessons need to be relevant and when they are not, the teachers should have the professional ability to modify or adaptation to ensure that the student has access to learning.

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I celebrate teams in my class by awarding them team points for showing respect, solving problems and other things.

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I use the Wildcat Wow to celebrate daily because I want my students to know that I am noticing not only the culminating successes but also the daily small successes.

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This monthly celebration recognizes students that have shown certain traits that we know are important, such as kindness, integrity and empathy.

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I celebrate successes with my students at the end of the trimester by doing trimester awards in the areas of academic achievement, citizenship, participation and improvement.

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Celebrating Reading Success with F&P Reading Levels

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Celebrating Reading Success with F&P Reading Levels

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When I met with students in the winter for the mid-year F&P assessment, ALL of my students improved. I celebrated this success verbally with my students and I shared this information with families at March conferences. I also shared with the entire class that everyone had improved.

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Evaluating the Effectiveness and Appropriateness of Mentor Texts

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Evaluating the Effectiveness and Appropriateness of Mentor Texts

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I shared with my grade level and with my evaluators, Chelsea and Paula, that I felt the Shelby Holmes mentor text was inappropriate and culturally inappropriate for my students. Admin told me it was a requirement for my class. I did not choose this book, it was chosen by someone else. The book made references to background knowledge throughout each page that my students do not have yet. The references and the vocabulary that were unknown were too many to scaffold each time I read the text. It was recommended that I summarize the book. Therefore, the request was to summarize the entire book and not to actually read the book. This I believe defeats the purpose of a read aloud and a mentor text. Knowing that this text was culturally and linguistically inappropriate for about 80% of my class, I adapted the readings so that they were shorter in order to be able to provide background knowledge and at the same time teach the skills needs to meet the common core standard that was in the lesson plans. I continue following the learning intentions and success criteria of the lesson plans.

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Because I am bilingual, I am able to communicate directly with my students not only in an instructional context, but in all other contexts. This skill allows me to better able get to know my students needs, strengths and hopes.

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I use timers to make sure students know they have a reasonable time limit to complete a task. This is also used when I don't use a timer and need to re-engage them...then I use the timer.

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I used this regularly to recognize teams working together but also use it to re-engage students in a task. Students respond well when I use it.

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Planning on Weekends in Addition to Everyday

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Planning on Weekends in Addition to Everyday

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I come almost every weekend to prepare/plan for the week's lessons, scaffolds and differentiation. This is in addition to the addition hour of free labor I provide every work day (arrive about 8am and leave about 4:30pm) and the additional free labor I provide every evening and early morning at home (about 2 hours). Finally, I provide free labor for 10 minutes during my lunch, for fear I will be accused of not being prepared for Word Study at 3:35pm (there is no transition time between all the 10 lessons/subjects I teach everyday.

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I don't want to have students waste time writing their name on their sorts or cutting out sorts too long. I pre-cut the borders of sorts and have different colors so that we can easily identify lost sorts rather than students spending precious instructional time writing their names/initials on the back of 20+ pictures/cards or spending too long cutting.

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The most important information (summarizing)

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The most important information (summarizing)

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Using Data Relevant Marginalized Students

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Using Data Relevant Marginalized Students

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Researching Workshop Model Within Dual Language Programs and With MLL Students

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Researching Workshop Model Within Dual Language Programs and With MLL Students

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I have been researching the workshop model but within the context of DL and MLL. I have learned and have communicated my learning to admin. Research by educators who are experts in DL, MLL and teach the workshop model within a biliteracy context agree that the following are true: Karen Beeman says that the worshop model should not be everyday in a biliteracy context. It should be at the end of a unit of study that is integrated with science or social students that you are currently teaching. This allows for weeks of comprehensible input, academic language, oral language development, etc. so that by the time you get to the workshop model, students have a strong schema, linguistic repertoir in both languages in order to be successful in the skills they are being asked to transfer.

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It is common knowledge that when working with MLL students, especially a class like mine that is majority, your speech much be slower and enunciation must be clear and language has to be accessible. Because of this, the pacing of my instruction needs to be slower. My evaluators have commented that it is too slow sometimes, but I remind them of the basic knowledge known by educators trained in basic ELL strategies, that pacing in speech must be slower at times. Because of this, mini-lessons should be longer than 15 minutes.

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Displaying Culturally Sensitivity to Issues

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Displaying Culturally Sensitivity to Issues

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I emailed Paula in regards to immigration protocol. I let her know that I had talked to various colleagues and they were also concerned but had no direction about district policies.

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OSPI has a large banner on their staircase with a picture of my and my former students. This is part of my advocacy for MLL students. 

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I go above and beyond by advocating at the state level for MLL students in the dual language programs. For example, I am on the Dual Language Steering Committee with OSPI. As a member of this committee, I advocate for things such as program evaluations, recommendations for training administration on DL and MLL and I ask questions to further my understanding about Civil Rights requirements within DL for our MLL students and families.

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I advocate for my students at the building level. For example, the unit plans that are mandated for teachers to use for Reading and Writing workshops. I have provided feedback to admin on the strengths and the barriers of these units. Example: I like that many skills build upon each other. But, these lessons seem designed for monolingual students in a monolingual program who speak only English. Admin say that these skills are for exposure. But how are students supposed to apply these skills (deeper learning) if we are teaching for exposure and the pacing is very fast, especially for my language learners, who happen to be 14 of the 18 students in my class.

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This reflects an inclusive classroom where students have the opportunity to apply cultural and linguistic components into their learning. For example, students learned about bones earlier in the year, which also happened around the time of Day of the Dead.

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Student Application of Knowledge that builds Upon Previous Skills

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Student Application of Knowledge that builds Upon Previous Skills

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Providing Background Knowledge to Isolated District Lessons

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Providing Background Knowledge to Isolated District Lessons

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Scaffolding with District Mandated Interactive Read Aloud

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Scaffolding with District Mandated Interactive Read Aloud

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Main Idea and Detail Scaffold: Interactive Read Alound

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Main Idea and Detail Scaffold: Interactive Read Alound

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Pacing Guide Developed by 3rd Withing District Parameters

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Pacing Guide Developed by 3rd Withing District Parameters

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I gave input related to the pacing guide of 3rd grade units. For example this is unit 6. I helped with this unit. I make sure each day that I follow it and I look at the common core standards that are assigned to each lesson to make sure the skill that is written in the lesson plans are appropriate to the needs of my students.

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Family Engagement Night: STEAM Family Night

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Family Engagement Night: STEAM Family Night

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I participated and helped Megan Tribble organize the annual STEAM Family Night. I was part of the scientific illustrations group and I also invited and organized 5 non-profit organizations to have sessions: Olympic National Park; PEI; Wolf Haven: Burke Museum; Washington Fish and Wildlife

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Dual Language Steering Committee with OSPI

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Dual Language Steering Committee with OSPI

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Although this is from 2023, I am still actively part of this committee. My responsibilities are to collaborate with state leaders, provide feedback, ask questions and to share my learning with others. This is where I have continue to learn a lot of DL and MLL and have shared with admin and colleagues.

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Beth Chapin

Imelda Acosta

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I attend the Word Study training along with 3rd grade Imelda and 4th Grade Ingrid and Sara. Imelda and I often collaborate with Sara since they have been doing Word Sorts since the beginning of the school year. This picture represents a day that Imelda and were talking to her about a Words Their Way strategy and checking in the assignment given to us. This example of collaboration with other colleagues is a regular thing I do all day and every day.

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I have this up for my students. This calendar helps my students with organization, reminders and functions as a preventative measure for interrupting me to ask about an event.

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I understand the background and interests of my students and community. Because of this, I went above and beyond to not only read this book to my students, but I also arranged for this author to visit my school and read aloud to all students for the entire day.

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I gave feedback at a unit planning session with third grade that also included Paula, Angela and Beth. I gave feedback about the confusion with the district directive of teaching Unit 5 that impacted me and Imelda. This feedback is an example of my daily reflection and collaboration with Imelda. My feedback was not taken positively by Paula. She claims that I was off-topic. This is very concerning because it reminds me of discrimination, a concern I have been sharing with the district regularly.

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Parts of Speech (GLAD Integrated w/Science)

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Parts of Speech (GLAD Integrated w/Science)

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The students are learning parts of speech as their academic language: article, noun, adjective, verb, adverb and prepositions. This is done over several days, integrated (not isolated subject) and not in one 15 minute setting because that is how appropriate language acquisition lessons work.

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April 14 Communication with Melissa Regarding Unclear District Unit Lessons

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April 14 Communication with Melissa Regarding Unclear District Unit Lessons

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I shared with Melissa that the lesson 5 in readers workshop and writers workshop did not make sense. There were no clear instructions about what the student writing prompt was going to be on. I had also talked with Imelda and she was confused as well. Because Melissa was part of creating that unit, she knew what the prompt was supposed to be on. I suggested to her as feedback that it needs to be clear. Another teacher in third had done the prompt that week on the wrong topic because of that.

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April 18 9:30-9:50 Check In with Evaluators

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April 18 9:30-9:50 Check In with Evaluators

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I shared with Paula, Chelsea and Eva that lessons in the district unit plans are not providing meaning access to our MLL students because it is asking for too many skills in a 15 minute period. I also shared that Chelsea's notes were a misrepresentation/inaccurate of what she said I asked in the last check in. Paula tried to explain the answer to my question: Can I have the flexibility to modify and adapt lessons as long as they are still aligned with the standard and skill being taught. Paula's answer was very convoluted and there was no clear answer. I was trying to reflect on the district unit plans that I am required to teach. They are written from a monolingual lens and not with MLL or DL or bilitercy lens.

I did share about my word study lesson that Chelsea had observed. I shared that I was trying what the trainers at the second word study training had suggested and what Paula had suggested, which was to have two groups in my group. I shared that the Word Hunt activity is an appropriate activity because it causes students to have to find words with initial consonant sounds within context of an actual text. I shared that we do this together and that eventually, students will be doing this independently.

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Email April 14 About Unclear District Unit Plans

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Paula asked for feedback about how it was going for us teaching in 3rd grade. I shared that it was easier when you only have to teach in one language rather than switching every week. I shared that the lessons had too many skills to teach in one lesson that was supposed to last 15 minutes because the topics changed too often and as MLL, there needs to be time to develop background knowledge, provide comprehensible input and help with oral language development. I stated that lessons are isolated and not integrated with science or social studies. Cande agreed with me and so did Ingrid (4th grade teachers)

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Students are able to communicate what they are already know about a topic. This also allows them to ask questions about something they want to learn. Students also have the opportunity to answer their own question and cite their source.

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I integrate the indigenous language of Mam and Q'an'jobal when we are studying a science unit. This is part of translanguaging. This makes my students very happy and helps my classroom and myself be more inclusive.

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I have asked my students to teach me Mam and Q'an'jobal so that we can practice their indigenous language while we take brain breaks.

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We all participate to plan for upcoming units to follow them while doing our best withing district parameters to make them have meaningful access to our ELL students who are the majority of my class.

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I share my personal connections related to classroom/school behaviors and experiences so my students understand that I value and respect them as children, learners, humans, etc., especially my students who struggle academically and who might be experiencing stress due to family status.

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Through me self-funded PD in Guatemala, I learned that they celebrate Dia del Nino in the fall, and not the spring like Mexico and Evergreen Elementary does. So we did a modified version of this in October. Students wore traditional clothing as part of this day.

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Because I talk to my students and my families, I know that my students want to learn more about animals, migration/immigration and Mexico. So we participated in the Symbolic Monarch Migration in early fall. Students, families and staff participated in this easy to do activity that involved learning about migration/immigration, Mexico and life cycles. It was integrated with science and social studies.

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I applied for a grant with Shelton SD to support me to attend a professional development in Guatemala to understand the culture of my students better. The district did not grant me the funds. Nevertheless, I funded the trip myself. I learned about the school system, differences in vocabulary, traditions, customs, and other things that helped develop a more positive relationship with my students and their families.

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Whenever I see parents, I interact with them and often took about other things to learn more about students in order to help me meet their needs. Examples: at parent pick up; phone calls home; field trips; fall and spring parent conferences; family engagement nights (STEM, Open House, etc.)

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I eat lunch with students sometimes so I can learn more about them outside of the traditional classroom.

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We used this for unit 6 of reader's workshop to help students access language specific to comprehension skills--summarizing the main idea with details.

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This was a lesson from back in early fall when the comprehension skill was related to asking and answering questions about a text.

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Using Pictures of Students at School Events in Learning Structures

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Using Pictures of Students at School Events in Learning Structures

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Daily Schedules to Follow the 15 Schedules of Bilingual Program

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Daily Schedules to Follow the 15 Schedules of Bilingual Program

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Data for Planning: Words Their Way Assessment

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Data for Planning: Words Their Way Assessment

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Need Picture

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I participated in the 2-hour on your own training for WIDA. I am one of the teachers who is assessing identified EL students for the ACCESS test.

On Friday, February 21, my students and I did the practice test, as was scheduled for 3rd grade.

The week of February 24, I tested 20 students from my class and Ms. Lauth's class on Listening, Reading, Speaking and Writing. Even though I was not supposed to test one student, Santiago, from Williamson's class, I helped to have him come to my class per his IEP to get instructions first then test in a quiet location. I also communicated with my team and the test coordinator, Angela, about students who were absent and needed to do a test makeup.

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I was invited and attended an Ethnic Studies professional development at The Evergreen State College's Master's in Teaching (MiT) where I participated in activities concerning deficit vs asset based education; counter-storytelling; scaffolding; and creating a welcoming environment. One activity that was presented that I do but I want to improve on, based on the presentation, is having students share the history of their names.

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I shared some data with 3rd grade at an informal collaboration. I reminded everyone that the data is accessible on Homeroom. Two of the third grade teachers said they did not know how to access the data via Homeroom. One of those teachers later asked me if I could show her. I went to her class after school and tried, but we found out that she did not have an account yet. I sought out Angela M and let her know and Angela mentioned that Tara would be the person to contact. I let the teacher know. I then showed that teacher how to access the reports by using my Homeroom to demonstrate the pathway to the records she needed. The teacher thanked me for helping her.

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Imelda and I go to each other often to seek out mentorship. This includes coming to each other's class and giving feedback. Comparing and contrasting strategies we use and how they work for our students. I also help her find documents on the Share Point for the units: reading, writing and word study. For example, she did not know where to find the Spanish resources in the Share drive, since that is new starting in about November of 2025. I showed her and she thanked me.