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SupportEd: How to Serve your Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education (SLIFE)

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SupportEd: How to Serve your Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education (SLIFE)

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Have you noticed any changes to your English learner (EL) population lately? As educators of ELs, we are aware that world events often have an impact on our newly arrived ELs' backgrounds. In this point in time in which immigrants and ELs are often the topic of conversation among policymakers, it is important to consider the strengths and challenges that a small but significant subgroup of ELs brings. Students with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE) are a group of ELs whose presence can have a profound impact on schools and educators.

This post will provide you with a definition of SLIFE, share some statistics on SLIFE, and highlight SLIFE's strengths. It will briefly detail some considerations for SLIFE instruction, families, and programming. It will end with information on our new online SLIFE course at SupportEd as well as some resources for further information on SLIFE.

SLIFE Definition and Challenges

SLIFE are students with limited or interrupted formal education. Certain states and districts have their own unique definition of SLIFE, but generally they come from a home in which a language other than English is spoken, have gaps in their education from their home country, and are below grade level in reading and mathematics. They may have attended school in the U.S. but can have gaps in language and literacy due to ineffective instruction. They generally have little or no home language literacy, are at risk for dropping out of school, and need support beyond traditional English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) programs. In addition to academic needs, SLIFE often present socioemotional challenges stemming from poverty, poor health, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), family separation and/or reunification, and changes in family roles in the US.

SLIFE Statistics

Even though SLIFE represent a relatively small proportion of ELs, estimated to be between 10% and 20% of ELs (Advocates for Children of New York, 2010; de Velazco & Fix, 2000), their challenges can overwhelm districts, administrators, and teachers. Certain school districts that we have worked with have seen a dramatic increase in the number and percentage of SLIFE they are enrolling with few resources in place. When a school or district experiences an unexpected rise in SLIFE students, they may not have policies and practices in place to address SLIFE's unique socioemotional and academic challenges described above that often extend beyond ELs' need to acquire English.

SLIFE Strengths

Instead of focusing solely on the challenges that SLIFE bring, we like to frame our work with SLIFE and their educators around SLIFE's many strengths . Some strengths that SLIFE tend to bring to their education include resiliency, problem solving, cultural pride, strong family ties, motivation, and sense of community. In addition, SLIFE's "funds of knowledge," or "the skills and knowledge that have been historically and culturally developed to enable an individual or household to function within a given culture" (Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992), can be a helpful place to begin once the teacher identifies them.

Considerations for Instruction

The Mutually Adaptive Learning Paradigm (MALP) can provide a useful frame of reference for the instruction of SLIFE. Many SLIFE need immediate relevance and interconnectedness in order to learn. Over time the MALP framework combines processes so that SLIFE can be successful in U.S. Schools. The framework starts with shared responsibility and introduces features of American school culture such as individual accountability and written word as a means of transmitting information. The model progresses to focus on new activities with familiar language and content to develop skills to complete academic tasks (DeCapua & Marshall, 2011). Some other considerations for instructing SLIFE include building upon students' home languages and oracy as well as carefully choosing and adapting instructional materials.

Considerations for SLIFE Families

We should also consider families of SLIFE, who would like to deeply support their children but may need some extra assistance to do so. Schools and districts should discuss providing additional support services for SLIFE families, such as after-school tutoring, trauma support, language classes for adults, and cultural liaisons so that their children can be successful in school.

Considerations for Programming

There are many aspects of effective programming to consider. These include identification of SLIFE, enrollment process and materials, and program models. When identifying and enrolling SLIFE in districts, districts should have a clear identification process, consider providing an oral interview in the home language to determine students' backgrounds, and provide literacy and math assessments in the home language (New York State Department of Education, 2011). In terms of effective programs, small classes should be provided for SLIFE with support for both academic as well as socio-emotional growth, an intensive skills focus, and appropriately scaffolded instructional strategies. Many models for SLIFE exist, including newcomer programs, stand-alone models, integrated ESOL models, and extended learning opportunities (Custodio & O'Loughlin, 2017).

SLIFE Online Course: Get Started

Dive deeper into SLIFE with our 12-hour facilitated online course. Our interactive online SLIFE course is developed by a team of experts at SupportEd. In this 6-week course, partcipants will be able to meet the following objectives:

Apply understanding of the strengths and challenges of specific SLIFE populations to advocate for SLIFE in your context

Use strategies for supporting and engaging SLIFE and their families

Develop SLIFE-specific lessons and activities by applying a framework for the effective instruction of SLIFE

Set goals for using best practices to facilitate an instructional program and school climate that incorporates the academic, social, emotional, and cultural needs of SLIFE in your context

Participants will receive 12 hours of professional development upon completion. Get started and save your seat for our online SLIFE course here . For more information, please email info@supported.com .

When we fully understand what experiences SLIFE bring to their schools, we are better equipped to provide appropriate resources for SLIFE and their families, improving their chances for academic and personal growth. We look forward to working with you to fill your toolbox with useful strategies for supporting SLIFE and to build a network of support.

SLIFE Resources

Custodio, B., & O'Loughin, J. (2017). Students with interrupted formal education: Bridging where they are and what they need. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

DeCapua, A. & Marshall, H. (2011). Breaking new ground: Teaching students with limited or interrupted formal education in U.S. secondary schools. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press ELT.

DeCapua, A., Smathers,W., & Tang,L. (2009). Meeting the needs of students with limited or interrupted schooling. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press ELT.

Keppler, L., Morales, L., Cortada, J., Austin, M. (2015). WIDA Focus On SLIFE: Students with interrupted or limited formal education. Retrieved from https://www.wida.us/get.aspx?id=848

Moll, L., Amanti, C., Neff, D., & Gonzalez, N. (1992). Funds of knowledge for teaching: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory Into Practice, XXXI, 2, 132-141.

New York State Department of Education. (2011). Guidelines for educating limited English proficient students with interrupted formal education. Retrieved from https://www.p12.nysed.gov/biling/docs/NYSEDSIFEGuidelines.pdf

Robertson, K. & Lafond, S. (2012). How to support ELL students with interrupted formal education (SIFEs) [blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.colorincolorado.org/article/how-support-ell-students-interrupted-formal-education-sifes

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How to Serve your Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education (SLIFE)

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Expert guidance on serving SLIFE students, also known as SIFE students, including considerations for programming and families.

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Considerations in Intentionally Grouping Students_v4 (1) (1)

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6 Steps for Scaffolding for SLIFE Students

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6 Steps for Scaffolding for SLIFE Students

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Possible Roles of Teachers in Teaching Language and Content 

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Possible Roles of Teachers in Teaching Language and Content 

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Unlocking MLs' Potential Companion Website

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Unlocking MLs' Potential Companion Website

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Unlocking Multilingual Learners' Potential: Strategies for Making Content Accessible

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How to Support ELL Students with Interrupted Formal Education (SIFEs)

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How to Support ELL Students with Interrupted Formal Education (SIFEs)

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By K. Robertson & S. Lafond

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How to Support ELL Students with Interrupted Formal Education (SIFEs)

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SIFEs and SLIFEsAnother related term that educators may see is “Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education” (SLIFEs).When immigrant students enroll in a new school, their prior educational experiences may vary widely. Students who have not had an opportunity to attend school or have had m…

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The Mutually Adaptive Learning Paradigm®, or MALP®, is a culturally responsive instructional approach to help educators address the needs of students with limited or interrupted formal education (S…

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Figure 3.8 Protocol to Counter ML Deficits and Promote an Assets-Based Approach

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Protocol to Counter ML Deficits and Promote an Assets-Based Approach

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Protocol to Counter ML Deficits and Promote an Assets-Based Approach

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Colorín Colorado is a national multimedia project that offers a wealth of bilingual, research-based information, activities, and advice for educators and families of English language learners (ELLs). Colorín Colorado is an educational service of WETA, the flagship public broadcasting station in the nation's capital, and receives major funding from the American Federation of Teachers and National Education Association.

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This second edition shares dynamic, research-backed strategies that every educator of multilingual learners (MLs) needs.

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Today's public schools are brimming with students who are not only new to English but who also have limited or interrupted schooling. These students, referred to as SLIFE (or SIFE), create unique challenges for teachers and administrators.

Like its predecessor, this book is grounded in research and is designed to be an accessible and practical resource for teachers, staff, and administrators who work with students with limited or interrupted formal education. Chapters 3-5 focus on classroom instruction, but others address issues of concern to administrators and staff too. For example, Chapter 6 explores different program models for SLIFE instruction, but the planning and commitment to creating a successful program require the involvement of many across the school community, not just teachers.

This edition features case studies, model programs, and teaching techniques and tips; also included is a new chapter focused on the Mutually Adaptive Learning Paradigm (MALP (R)). A major theme of this new edition is moving school personnel away from a deficit perspective, when it comes to teaching SLIFE, and toward one of difference. The goal is to help all stakeholders in the school community create and foster inclusion of, and equity for, a population that is all too often marginalized, ignored, and underserved.

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Today's public schools are brimming with students who are not only new to English but who also have limited or interrupted schooling. These students, referred to as SLIFE (or SIFE), create unique challenges ...

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Breaking New Ground for SLIFE The Mutually Adaptive Learning Paradigm (2nd ed.)

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Breaking New Ground for SLIFE The Mutually Adaptive Learning Paradigm (2nd ed.)

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A. DeCapua & H. Marshall, 2023

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In its second edition, builds on its model for supporting students who are new to English and may have experienced a disruption in their schooling. The practices presented in this book emerge from the belief that education for students with limited or interrupted formal education, also known as SLIFE, should not be remedial but should build on the students' prior learning experiences and existing areas of knowledge. This second edition has been significantly updated, informed by recent research in the field, feedback from teachers, and new scholarly treatments of the topic. Breaking New Ground for SLIFE, second edition, explores the MALP approach, highlights how technology can be incorporated into classroom activities, and includes actual MALP projects implemented by MALP-trained teachers of both young and adolescent learners. In addition, the authors provide a newly revised MALP Teacher Planning Checklist.

By reading Breaking New Ground for SLIFE, educators will:

- Further develop their understanding of the needs of students with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE)
- ​Learn about the Mutually Adaptive Learning Paradigm (MALP) and how to integrate it into their classrooms
- Discover and learn about the MALP instructional approach and how to use it to develop a project-based curriculum using examples from teachers in the field

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In its second edition, Breaking New Ground for SLIFE builds on its model for supporting students who are new to English and may have experienced a disruption in their schooling. The practices presented ...

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Department of Education, 2017

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A one page flow chart that outlines the steps involved in identifying Students with Interrupted/Inconsistent Formal Education, as outlined in Part 154 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education.

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SupportEd has developed some free tools to help educators and administrators better serve English learners.

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“Dove and Honigsfeld’s new book arrives at the perfect time as an increasing number of schools move to a collaborative instructional model and are searching for guidance. The authors not only tell us how to effectively collaborate and co-teach to benefit English l…

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English news and easy articles for students of English

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News in Levels « World News for Students of English

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We write news in three different levels of English. We want to help you understand English more. Now all students can enjoy reading and listening to news.

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Funds of Knowledge for Teaching: Using a Qualitative Approach to Connect Homes and Classrooms 

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Funds of Knowledge for Teaching: Using a Qualitative Approach to Connect Homes and Classrooms 

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Students with Interrupted Formal Education

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Students with Interrupted Formal Education

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B. Custodio & J. O'Loughlin

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"One of the guiding principles of effective English language teaching is for educators to know their students. And that in a nutshell captures the value of this book. . . . The compassion that Custodio and O'Loughlin feel for our SIFE students, the commitment they have to educating them well, and the comprehension they have of the assets these learners bring to the classroom are evident in the writing, tools, and vignettes they share."

-Deborah J. Short

Under the best of circumstances, the academic demands of today's classrooms can be daunting to our English learners. But for the tens of thousands of newly arrived students with interrupted formal education, even the social challenges can be outright overwhelming.

Rely on this all-in-one guide from Brenda Custodio and Judith O'Loughlin for expert insight on how to build the skills these students need for success in school and beyond. Inside you'll find

Essential background on factors leading to interrupted education

Specific focus on refugee children and Latino immigrants

Guidance on building internal resilience for long-term social and emotional health

Recommendations for creating supportive environments at the classroom, school, and district level

About one thing, Brenda and Judith are absolutely convinced: our SIFE students can learn and make progress, often at a remarkable speed. But it's up to us, their educators, to provide the time, attention, and a specific focus. Consider this book your first step forward.

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Students With Interrupted Formal Education: Bridging Where They Are and What They Need

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Students With Interrupted Formal Education: Bridging Where They Are and What They Need

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BOOSTING ACHIEVEMENT: REACHING STUDENTS WITH INTERRUPTED OR MINIMAL EDUCATION is a guide to help educators and school districts navigate the challenges and learning opportunities unique to SIFE (Students with Interrupted Formal Education). Circumstances such as upheaval due to war and political turmoil in their native countries may have contributed to minimal education experiences, thus prompting current educators to adopt an innovative approach in meeting students' cognitive, affective, and linguistic needs.

In the pages of this teacher-friendly framework, educators will explore interactive and engaging learning strategies which maximize English language development as students learn academic content. A distinctive thread woven through the pages is the growth mindset belief that with effort and targeted strategies, students are able to accelerate their learning despite challenges they may have faced. Boosting Achievement encourages a practical approach to instruction that incorporates authentic learning experiences while leveraging students' unique backgrounds and perspectives to enrich our classrooms and learning environments.

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Boosting Achievement - Seidlitz Education

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Boosting Achievement Reaching Students with Interrupted or Minimal Education Carol Salva with Anna Matis

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7b. SLIFE Scheduling Planning Document.docx

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Quality Teaching for English Learners (QTEL) Articles

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Quality Teaching for English Learners (QTEL) Articles

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Amplifying the Curriculum: Designing Quality Learning Opportunities for English Learners

By: Aída Walqui, and George C. Bunch (Editors)

Amplifying the Curriculum presents an ambitious model for how educators can design high-quality, challenging, and supportive learning opportunities for English Learners and other students identified to be in need of language and literacy support.

Starting with the premise that conceptual, analytic, and language practices develop simultaneously as students engage in disciplinary learning, the authors in this edited volume argue for instruction that amplifies-rather than simplifies-expectations, concepts, texts, and learning tasks. The authors offer clear guidance for designing lessons and units and provide examples that demonstrate the approach in various subject areas, including math, science, English, and social studies.

This practical resource will guide teachers through the coherent design of tasks, lessons, and units of study that invite English Learners (and all students) to engage in productive, meaningful, and intellectually engaging activity.

Edited by WestEd's Aida Walqui and George Bunch, this book features:

A unique model for teaching English Learners and ALL students that highlights the centrality of interactions in the development of student academic autonomy

Discipline-specific examples to guide teachers in creating learning tasks, lessons, and units of study

A discussion of how teachers might begin designing such learning opportunities, along with suggestions for how school leaders and teacher preparation can support them

Grounded in sociocultural and ecological theories of language, language learning, and the development of disciplinary practices

English Language Learners and the New Standards: Developing Language, Content Knowledge, and Analytical Practices in the Classroom

By: Margaret Heritage, Aída Walqui, and Robert Linquanti

WestEd authors Margaret Heritage, Aída Walqui, and Robert Linquanti explain the theories and research that underlie their vision and examine the role of policy in shaping pedagogy and assessment for English language learners (ELLs).

They present a clear vision and practical suggestions for helping teachers engage ELLs in simultaneously learning subject-area content, analytical practices, and language.

This book:

Clarifies the skills and knowledge teachers need to integrate content knowledge and language development

Shows how teachers can integrate formative assessment in ongoing teaching and learning

Discusses key leverage points and stress points in using interim and summative assessments with ELLs

Provides classroom vignettes illustrating key practices

Scaffolding the Academic Success of Adolescent English Language Learners: A Pedagogy of Promise

By: Aída Walqui and Leo van Lier

Too often, the needs of English language learners are met with simplified curricula and lowered expectations. What would happen if instead classrooms were organized to honor the promise of these students by increasing rather than decreasing the intellectual challenge of instruction? This book is the result of a decade-long effort in school districts such as New York City, Austin, and San Diego to implement challenging instruction that is designed for classrooms that include English learners and that raises the bar and increases engagement for all learners.

Access and Engagement: Program Design and Instructional Approaches for Immigrant Students in Secondary Schools

Many immigrant students in secondary school have problems succeeding because of the structures of the schools themselves. This book profiles six students to help illuminate the needs of immigrant students. It details the structural obstacles that inhibit students' success, and it describes ten priorities for designing effective teaching and learning contexts for immigrant students. The author describes four promising programs in detail and makes recommendations in the areas of future program development and research.

SELECTED ARTICLES AND BRIEFS

Designing Mathematical Interactions for English Learners*

By Haiwen Chu and Leslie Hamburger

Haiwen Chu and Leslie Hamburger have contributed an article focused on English Learners to the 2019 Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School "Making Math Social" focus issue. Designing Mathematical Interactions for English Learners* offers practical designs for engaging invitations for English Learners to interact with their peers.

The article unpacks three key ideas about designing interactive activities for English Learners:

How the flow of information in a task can enhance opportunities to participate in quality interactions,

How structure-or the steps-of a task facilitates deep exploration of ideas and practices,

How the underlying mathematical goal is related to how students will interact.

* Article available to members of NCTM who subscribe to Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School.

Meaningful Classroom Talk: Supporting English Learners' Oral Language Development

By Aída Walqui and Margaret Heritage

Defining meaningful classroom talk and supporting English Learner's oral language development begins with educator awareness of two key ideas:

How to ensure that all English Learners have the opportunities to productively use oral language in academic settings

How teachers leverage the power of classroom interactions to simultaneously foster language development, content knowledge and analytic practices

This article explores these two interrelated themes and provides guidelines supported by both research and classroom practices for educators to rethink and reinvent quality learning opportunities for English Learners.

Quality Education for ELLs/ MLLs: Why We Need It and How We Can Achieve It

Defining quality education for English language learners and multilingual learners in the United States begins with educator awareness of three key ideas:

The role and purpose of education in a democracy

The need to change the current state of education for English language learners (ELLs) and multilingual learners (MLLs) to allow their full participation in our evolving society

The importance of using solid theory to drive transformation in the education of ELLs and MLLs

This brief, written by Aída Walqui of WestEd's Quality Teaching for English Learners, explores these three interrelated themes and provides a rationale for educators to rethink and reinvent quality education for English language learners and multilingual learners.

The brief also serves as an introduction to a series of New York State Education Department-published briefs that explore the dimensions of what quality education for English language learners and multilingual learners looks like when informed by the ideas described by Walqui.

Quality Student Interactions: Why Are They Crucial to Language Learning and How Can We Support Them?

Embedded within today's college- and career-readiness standards are increased demands that students gain deeper understandings of content, engage in analytic and complex thinking about that content, and engage in dialogue that is appropriate to the discipline.

These three arenas of development - conceptual, analytical, and linguistic - grow simultaneously through participation in social interaction. Thus, it is essential that all students, especially English language learners (ELLs) and multilingual learners (MLLs), are provided instructional activities that engage them in quality interactions that support their conceptual, analytic, and linguistic development, and promote their ability to apply these skills and practices on their own.

Written by Elsa Billings and Peggy Mueller of WestEd's Quality Teaching for English Learners, this brief answers the following questions:

Why is social interaction essential in learning language and the disciplines?

What constitutes "quality student interaction" and how do we make that happen?

How do educators go beyond the expert-novice student interaction?

How can educators create spaces for quality student interactions in the classroom?

De-Mystifying Complex Texts: What are "Complex" Texts and How Can We Ensure ELLs/MLLs Can Access Them?

Because the idea of complex text permeates all the disciplines and levels of schooling, concern about its implications for teaching goes far beyond the high school English teacher.

These concerns become particularly heightened when considering English language learners (ELLs) and multilingual learners (MLLs), the students who are simultaneously asked to read and comprehend complex texts in a language they are still learning.

This brief, written by Elsa Billings and Aída Walqui of WestEd's Quality Teaching for English Learners, explores:

What qualifies as a complex text

The challenges of a narrow focus on quantitative dimensions of complexity

The particular difficulties of texts for ELLs and MLLs

How to make complex text more accessible to ELLs/MLLs

The Zone of Proximal Development: An Affirmative Perspective in Teaching ELLs/MLLs

The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) was a key construct in Lev Vygotsky's theory of learning and development.

The ZPD is defined as the space between what a learner can do without assistance and what a learner can do with adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers.

In the case of English language learners (ELLs)/Multilingual learners (MLLs), the immense potential that they bring to our classrooms is comprised of their intellectual, linguistic, and creative strengths that are waiting to be built upon. Educators must provide students appropriate learning experiences and support to help them realize their potential development. The goal of instruction is to foster our ELLs'/MLLs' autonomy and their ability to engage in activities that enable them to apply and modify what they have learned to new situations.

In this brief, WestEd's Elsa Billings and Aída Walqui explore:

Dispelling the Myth of "English Only": Understanding the Importance of the First Language in Second Language Learning

Contrary to the myth that "English only" is the one and only path to successful English acquisition, research on language learning shows that it is beneficial for a student to continue using their first language.

This brief, written by Elsa Billings and best-selling author , both of WestEd's Quality Teaching for English Learners, offers background on the importance of fostering continued use of the first language while simultaneously learning a second language.

The brief also provides instructional strategies that will help students strategically use their first language to access texts and participate in activities while they are simultaneously learning English. In so doing, teachers can build into their lessons powerful opportunities for students to simultaneously develop conceptual knowledge and skills in a discipline while they are expanding sophisticated understandings of both their first language and English.

Professional Learning Community Facilitators' Guide to Discussion of "English Language Learners and the New Standards: Developing Language, Content Knowledge, and Analytical Practices in the Classroom"

The book, English Language Learners and the New Standards, provides a clear, timely, and practical path for helping teachers engage English language learner (ELL) students in simultaneously learning subject-area content, analytical practices, and language.

This mathematics-focused facilitators' guide is designed to help professional learning communities (PLCs) of teachers, administrators, and/or school district staff discuss the book and develop goals and steps toward improving mathematics learning for all students.

For each book chapter, the guide offers a set of engaging activities, conversations, and structured planning time for groups to get the most out of reading English Language Learners and the New Standards together.

Topics covered in both the book and facilitators' guide include:

Pedagogical shifts that support ambitious learning for ELLs

Language acquisition in the mathematics classroom

The role of formative assessment

The role of summative assessment

The role of policy

Originally developed for use in the Math in Common network of 10 California school districts, this guide is now available for free to any group interested in English learners and math performance.

Changes in the Expertise of ESL Professionals: Knowledge and Action in an Era of New Standards

By Guadalupe Valdés, Amanda Kibler, Aída Walqui

Date: 2014

Publisher: TESOL International Association
View Online
Common Core and Next Generation standards present new challenges and possibilities for English as a-second language (ESL) professionals. In addition, the implementation of the standards raise critical questions about long-established ideas about the teaching and learning of English as a second language.

This paper, cowritten by Aida Walqui of WestEd's Quality Teaching for English Learners, explores the shifting landscape surrounding the new standards and its implications for building and enacting teacher expertise.

The paper is intended to inform ESL professionals, including teachers, teacher-leaders, school principals, district administrators, and other K-12 educators who work primarily or exclusively with students labeled as English language learners (ELLs).

The authors:

Discuss, and provide a brief introduction to, the Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards

Discuss the English language proficiency standards; that is, the standards that establish the goals of ESL instruction in each state as well as the assessment of expected proficiencies

Address two key challenges facing ESL professionals in the new standards era: the language practices required by the standards themselves and the issue of how ELLs can best be included in standards-aligned instruction

Suggest key ways in which ESL professionals can translate knowledge of changing theories about language and language acquisition into expertise and action in supporting ELLs' needs in the new standards era

Language and the Common Core State Standards

By Leo Van Lier and Aída Walqui

Date: 2012

Publisher: Stanford University
Full Article
This paper addresses the place and role of a focus on language in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The language and subject standards are open to being interpreted in a rather narrow, accuracy-based way, or in a broad, all-encompassing way that encourages the development of cognitive, linguistic, and affective strengths in ELs, thus enabling their academic success through connecting language, subject matter knowledge, and the physical, social and symbolic worlds of the learners. The Common Core Standards provide us with an opportunity to reconceptualize our pedagogical view of language and the ways in which it can be taught. Given that learning progressions in language and subject matter content have not been empirically tested, it would make sense to explore progressions based on language as action in the education of English Language Learners. It is essential that we do not miss this opportunity to integrate language, cognition, and action deeply and coherently.

What are we doing to middle school English learners: Findings and recommendations for change from a study of California EL programs

By Aída Walqui, Nanette Koelsch, and Leslie Hamburger, et al.

Date: 2010

Publisher: WestEd

Within the next decade, one in every four students in U.S. classrooms will be an English learner (EL). Furthermore, secondary students make up the fastest growing sector of the EL population. In middle school (and above), students who are English learners run out of time quickly. What are schools doing during the crucial middle school years to promote English learners' accelerated access to academic language and grade-level, standards-based instruction? How will these students catch up and be able to compete in high school, in college, and on the job market? This study concludes that based on findings in California, where 30 percent of the nation's English learner students are educated, middle school EL programs are failing students and limiting their futures in profound ways.

Selected States' Responses to Supporting High School English Language Learners

By: Nanette Koelsch

Date: 2009

Publisher: National High School Center
Full report
How have states responded to the English language learner accountability requirements of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act at the high school level? This policy brief, prepared by WestEd for the National High School Center, provides a snapshot of achievement and educational outcomes of secondary English language learners, and several states' efforts to improve the assessment and reporting of these outcomes, including their state-level accountability systems and policies.

Improving Literacy Outcomes for English Language Learners in High School: Considerations for States and Districts in Developing a Coherent Policy Framework

By: Nanette Koelsch

Date: 2006

Publisher: National High School Center
Full report
This research brief, published by the National High School Center, outlines existing barriers regarding teacher expectations, tracking, and placement of English language learners. The author concludes that states and districts need to change their approach for working with English learners from one of remediation to academic acceleration and enrichment. This research brief offers key policies and useful strategies for building capacity and creating learning environments conducive for the academic success of all students.

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Quality Teaching for English Learners (QTEL) - Publications

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Amplifying the Curriculum: Designing Quality Learning Opportunities for English Learners By: Aída Walqui, and George C. Bunch (Editors) Amplifying the Curriculum presents an ambitious model for how educators can design high-quality, challenging, and supportive learning opportunities for English Learners and other students identified to be in need of language and literacy support.

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The Academic Adaptation of Immigrant Students with Interrupted Schooling

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The Academic Adaptation of Immigrant Students with Interrupted Schooling

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website

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Ellevation: ML Program Management Tools for K-12

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Newcomers, or students who have recently resettled in the US, make up a significant portion of multilingual learners. Because of their diverse experiences, they bring a unique set of assets and experiences to the classroom. In this toolkit, we will share a variety of ways educators can better understand and support these students.

This toolkit is meant as a guide which can be worked through in any order. You can pick and choose which pieces will be most helpful to you and work through your selection at your own pace.

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Newcomers, or students who have recently resettled in the US, make up a significant portion of multilingual learners. Because of their diverse experiences, they bring a unique set of assets and experiences to the classroom. In this toolkit, we will share a variety of ways educators can better understand and support these students.

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It's time to improve literacy skills during social studies instruction and ensure that readers of all abilities have what they need to access grade-level social studies concepts.

Join us on Thursday, December 7 for a look at scaffolded materials that provide extra literacy support while building key social studies concepts and skills.

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Content Aligned To National & State Standard, Flexible To Support Relevant Curriculum. Find the Perfect Piece Of Content For Lessons. Go beyond the book.

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Saddleback's collection of Hi-Lo Books for tweens feature age-respectful and engaging content written at lower reading levels.

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High Interest Books, L. Ferlazzo Blog Post

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High Interest Books, L. Ferlazzo Blog Post

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The new question-of-the-week is:
What books have resonated most with your students, and why do you think that has been the case?
In Part One, Sarah Kirby-Gonzalez, Sarah Said, Jennifer Orr, and Tatiana Esteban share their experiences. You can listen to a 10-minute conversation I had with Sarah, Jennifer, and Sarah on my BAM! Radio Show. You can also find a list of, and links to, previous shows here.

Today, Rita Platt, Susanne Marcus, and Keisha Rembert "wrap up" the series.
Book recommendations Rita Platt (@ritaplatt) is a national-board-certified teacher and a proud #EduDork! Her experience includes teaching learners of all levels from kindergartner to graduate student. She is currently the principal of St. Croix Falls and Dresser Elementary Schools in Wisconsin, teaches graduate courses for the Professional Development Institute, and writes for MiddleWeb:
Over the years, I've worked with readers of all ages and have found some books to consistently resonate. Two things stand out as common among them. One, students like books they can read ( don't throw out that leveled library yet!) Two, students tend to like books better when they have time to both read and talk about them in school.

When I was a librarian, we had a saying: Right book. Right reader. Right time. The idea behind it is that our most important job is to help students find books that resonate with them. That is even more important when working with students who have been identified as reading below grade level or who have self-identified as not being "good" at reading or not liking to read. I am going to focus my response on those readers because they are very near and dear to my heart.

Below are perennial favorites of the kiddos I've served from 1st grade through high school. Note that they are all fiction, but there are many equally well-loved nonfiction books that I am happy to share, just ask!

Kindergarten and 1st grade readers love Elephant & Piggie books by Mo Willems. They are cute, laugh-out-loud funny, and they have simple text in the form of back and forth conversations. They also love Tedd Arnold's Fly Guy and the Hot Wheels Beginning Reader Series.

First and 2nd grade readers are excited to start reading "chapter books" but don't always have the skills or stamina to do so. There are many beginning chapter books that make my students crazy for reading. Hey Jack! and Billie B. Brown by Sally Rippin, The Owl Diaries by Rebecca Elliot, Dollar $tore Danny by Johnathan Rand, and The Bad Guys by Aaron Blabey fit the bill for many. Baby Mouse graphic novels by Jennifer L. Holm also grab my readers and hold them.

Third and 4th graders have been reading the My Weird School Series By Dan Gutman. They follow A.J. and friends as they meet the weirdest teachers in the world. These books are so funny that my own children once asked me to only read them during the day so I didn't wake them up laughing! They also enjoy the I Survived Series by Lauren Tarshis comprised of gripping short historical-fiction reads. Middle-grade-aged characters survive everything from Hurricane Katrina to the Nazi Invasion to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and more. The Sports Series by Jake Maddox flies off of the library shelves with truly incredible stories about every sport you can imagine. The books have both male and female protagonists and are highly engaging.

Fifth and 6th grade readers get hooked on the "if you liked Diary of a Wimpy Kid you should try..." books. Clueless McGee by Jeff Mack, Timmy Failure by Stephan Pastis, Dork Diaries by Rachel Renée Russell (this one has a female protagonist), Max Crumbly by Rachel Renée Russell, The Last Kids on Earth by Max Braillier, and Big Nate by Lincoln Peirce They are hilarious, full of cartoons, and have middle-school-aged characters.

Junior high and high school students love many of the books shared above. But, remember, I am focusing this list of texts that resonate on students who either are below-grade-level readers or who claim to not like to read. For those students, the Townsend Press Bluford High Series can be a revelation. The books are inexpensive (~$2 each) and feature diverse characters in real-life situations. I've seen more reluctant readers finish a Bluford as their first novel than any other book. Also popular are books written in verse. AdLit offers a fabulous resource list here.

Making personal connections
Susanne Marcus is an ESL educator with over 30 years experience in the K-12 setting. A two-term past president of NYS TESOL, Marcus has presented numerous workshops at professional conferences. Recently retired from the Great Neck public schools, Marcus currently teaches TESOL graduate courses in New York City and Long Island. She is an ELT trainer for NYSUT, presenting TESOL seminars for teachers. Marcus is the recipient of the NYS TESOL 2014 Outstanding Professional Award:

In my experience teaching secondary ESL students of all language backgrounds, proficiency and L1 literacy levels, there are a few books that stand out as ones that students have made very personal connections to. We know that when a personal connection is made, learning and personal growth are more likely to occur. Four of my most favorites are:

Sarah, Plain & Tall by Patricia MacLachlan (Newberry Award winner)

Journey of the Sparrows by Fran Leeper Bus

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

The Arrival by Shaun Tan (wordless picture book)

Sarah, Plain and Tall is a classic story, often read in 2nd through 4th grades. A widower with two young children in Kansas in the 1880s places a newspaper ad for a wife, and Sarah, a single woman from Maine, answers his ad. The book is full of descriptive vocabulary of the landscape of Kansas and Maine, but what appeals to my students and me most are the themes of change, family, loss of loved ones, loss of one's mother, marrying someone you don't know, abandonment, and of course, traveling and settling in a new place you must call home.

For many of my ESL classes, I read aloud to them as they read silently. We view films of the Midwest today and in the 1800s .... we study the vast geographical differences of regions in the U.S.A. as well as regional dialects of English. There is so much about the power of memory in healing one's loss in this story that it is immediately relevant to many of my ESL students' lives. We compare/contrast life in the 1880s to life in present day U.S.A. as well as of traditional cultures to contemporary cultures. Reading about fictional American characters (from places unknown to students) frees them to speak openly about similar challenges or loss they've had to face. It is safer to discuss emotional issues related to fictional characters rather than issues related to one's personal life.

While many of the teaching activities/projects available with this book are not developed for ESL students in mind, they are easily adaptable for ELLs of all ages. So many writing activities can be created from this book, and it wonderfully lends itself to a general overview of the regions of the U.S.A. Depending on the edition, the book's cover does not present as a children's book so older students are not offended by carrying it around. Another bonus is that the book is widely available as a recorded text, and it is short enough to read in less than half a semester.

There is a film adaptation made of the story, screenplay written by MacLachan herself, and I have used excerpts after we read a bit. Then, we often write reflections on if the film character matches our own character images in our heads. For those students really intrigued by the story, there are four sequels that bring the reader into the family's life, as they grow up after Sarah's arrival in Kansas.

The Arrival by Shaun Tan is a newer book I've used successfully with beginners and SIFE (Students with Interrupted Formal Education) ELLs. It is full of neutral-colored images, shadows, and muted tones, perhaps of a time long ago, even with elements of science fiction, that tell the story of an immigrant who leaves his family for a better life elsewhere. In 128 pages, this graphic novel captures the plight of an immigrant starting over through its dreamlike illustrations. The illustrations can be interpreted in infinite ways and frees up students to use their imagination in any way they can. I've asked some students to narrate the drawings, others to create dialogue, and other true SIFE/New Arrivals to list the items they see in a few drawings. Others are asked to choose their favorite drawing and explain why. Students can later present their stories using multimedia or simply by telling their narration. Overall, this story is relatable to anyone who has been lost, afraid, or confused in an unfamiliar place, so students may surprise you with their personal interpretations of it!

The classic novel The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton has as its central theme the conflict of social classes, or as my ELLs say, the conflict between the rich and the poor kids. Set in the 1960s in the Midwest, it is a wonderful study of American popular culture at the time. My secondary ELLs have enjoyed this story on many levels. Related activities include:

character analysis, how people change over time and in response to events

setting maps

family trees

music of the time

cars of the time

What many of my older ELLs realize is that the story's central conflict is more about our ability to cope with fear, loss, grief, and life's challenges than it is about the disparity between rich and poor. The story, therefore, is truly relatable to so many ELL students.

Journey of the Sparrows by Fran Leeper Buss recounts the journey of youngsters losing their father, fleeing the civil war in El Salvador in the 1990s, and settling in Chicago. It is a harrowing immigration story of crossing the border, which sadly is quite relatable to many ELLs today. For my intermediate-advanced Spanish-speaking students, this story resonates as it includes many Spanish words and symbols. Initially, one may think the novel will be easier than it actually is, even for those who are Spanish speakers. However, with the many symbols, numerous characters, and advanced vocabulary, some aspects of the book are challenging. Many students benefited from hearing the book read aloud and reading chapter summaries in advance. The plot unfolds with well-divided chapters that lend themselves to short chapter summaries.

"Windows" Keisha Rembert is an 8th grade English and U.S. history teacher at Clifford Crone Middle School in Naperville, Ill. Keisha feeds her love of learning by continually refining her craft and has been the recipient of several grants affording her the opportunity to take courses at some of the world's most renowned universities. She was named Illinois' History Teacher of the Year for 2019:
Night by Elie Wiesel is a class favorite from the curriculum. Books that flew off my shelf this year were Scythe by Neal Schusterman, Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds, and The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo. I think these books challenged the notion of what teens think and do. I think they offered my students "windows." These were also my personal favorites, so I was offering the books often, and they garnered a "cult" following.

Thanks to Rita, Susanne, and Keisha for their contributions!

Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.
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High-Interest Books & Giving Students Time to Read & Talk About Them in School (Opinion)

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The new question-of-the-week is: What books have resonated most with your students, and why do you think that has been the case? In Part One, Sarah Kirby-Gonzalez, Sarah Said, Jennifer Orr, and Tatiana Esteban share their experiences. You can listen to a 10-minute conversation I had with Sarah, Jennifer, and Sarah on my BAM!

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Great news! This exceptional content-area support site is now available in numerous other world languages.

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Sheltered Instruction For Middle School & High School

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Sheltered Instruction For Middle School & High School

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From: "Colorín Colorado's webcast"

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This 45-minute webcast is a thorough introduction to the challenges facing teachers of English language learners in middle and high school. Dr. Short will discuss how to teach content to late-entry English language learners and how to ensure reading comprehension for success in all content areas.

Dr. Short will also review effective instructional strategies and introduce why "newcomer schools" are effective in preparing English language learners for the challenges of grade-level academic content.

Recommended readings

The articles and books below were chosen by Reading Rockets to help you learn more about this issue.

Articles about instruction for middle and high school ELLs

The SIOP Model of Sheltered Instruction, (Center for Applied Linguistics)

A National Study of School Effectiveness for Language Minority Students' Long-Term Academic Achievement: Final Report Executive Summary, by Wayne P. Thomas and Virginia P. Collier (Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence)

The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol: A Tool for Teacher-Researcher Collaboration and Professional Development, by Deborah J. Short and Jana Echevarria (Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence)

Bilingual Books: Promoting Literacy and Biliteracy in the Second-Language and Mainstream Classroom, by Gisela Ernst-Slavit and Margaret Mulhern (Reading Online)

Responding to the Demographic Challenge: An Internet Classroom for Teachers of Language-Minority Students, by Jill Kerper Mora (Reading Online)

Literacy for all Children in the Increasingly Diverse Schools of the United States, by Claude Goldenberg (California State University, Long Beach)

Books and additional articles by our presenter

For a full listing of Deborah Short's publications with the Center for Applied Linguistics, see the CALStore.

Making Content Comprehensible to English Learners: The SIOP Model, by Jane Echevarria, MaryEllen Vogt, and Deborah Short (Pearson/Allyn & Bacon)

School Reform and Standards-based Education: How Do Teachers Help English Language Learners?(183K PDF)*, by Jane Echevarria, Deborah Short, and Kristen Powers (Center for Research on Education, Diveristy, and Excellence)

What Principals Should Know About Sheltered Instruction for English Language Learners, by Deborah Short (NASSP Bulletin)

A High Point: Success in Language, Literature, & Content, by Afredo Schifini, Deborah Short, and Josefina Tinajero (Hampton-Brown Co.)

Additional articles and books

Discussion questions

1. Review student demographic information for your school or school district. Does your ELL population reflect the trends described by Dr. Short? Specifically, what percentage of students is ELL this school year as compared to five years ago? What is the primary language spoken by ELLs at home?

2. The term "English language learner" is a broad term. Describe the diverse population that falls into this category.

3. Dr. Short described four challenges facing middle and high school teachers in terms of educating ELL students. Describe the ways your school is addressing those challenges. In addition, describe other challenges that you face as a faculty in educating your ELL students. Then, brainstorm some solutions to those challenges.

4. Consider the objectives for one content area you teach, and consider the key language features for that content. In what ways are you already incorporating some aspects of the SIOP model? Share those strategies with your colleagues. What did you learn from watching the 6th grade social studies lesson that you could incorporate into your classroom?

5. Describe the similarities and differences between the SIOP plan for teaching reading processes and what you know about effective strategy instruction for middle and high school students.

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English Language Learner Instruction in Middle and High School

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This 45-minute webcast is a thorough introduction to the challenges facing teachers of English language learners in middle and high school. Dr. Short will discuss how to teach content to late-entry English language learners and how to ensure reading comprehension for success in all content areas.

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Four Practices for Fostering ELs’ Oral Language Development

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Four Practices for Fostering ELs’ Oral Language Development

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getsupported.net

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Posted by Sydney Snyder

On February 5, 2019

0 Comments

Engaging English Learners (ELs) in Academic Conversations

Imagine this scene... your students are in small groups using images from a story that you recently read to discuss the story's themes. As you kneel down to listen in on one group's conversation, you overhear one of your quieter English learners say to her classmate, "Could you share an example from the story to support your idea?"

A scene such as the one described above highlights the benefits of building ELs' capabilities to engage in academic conversations. A synthesis of research on strategies to support ELs' academic achievement identifies the importance of peer-to-peer learning opportunities that include peer discussions about academic content (August, 2018). Such peer-to-peer discussions promote language and literacy development and also serve as a powerful tool for learning and remembering content ( Walqui & Heritage, 2018; Zwiers & Crawford, 2011).

However, despite the proven benefits of academic conversations, many ELs are still provided insufficient opportunities to engage in these types of oral language activities and often remain largely silent during instruction. In order to increase your ELs' participation in academic conversations, we propose that will foster greater EL engagement (Staehr Fenner & Snyder, 2017). We describe each one below and provide examples.

Four Practices for Fostering ELs' Oral Language Development

1. Come to the discussion prepared . If we want ELs to participate in academic conversations, we must be sure that they are sufficiently prepared to take part. This means that they have knowledge of and support with the language needed for the discussion as well as understanding of the content being discussed. Some strategies to support this practice are to:

Pre-teach and provide guided practice with needed vocabulary,

Provide sufficient thinking and writing time, and

Use scaffolded graphic organizers to support ELs' sharing of ideas.

2. Use appropriate body language. In addition to providing support with the content and language needed during oral language activities, we also need to teach ELs what it looks like to engage in academic conversations (e.g., making eye contact, leaning in, nodding understanding). In order to support ELs with this practice:

Be open about differences in cultural norms related to body language,

Use role plays to demonstrate appropriate and inappropriate body language, and

Make use of appropriate body language a part of student learning goals.

3. Participate by taking turns. A challenge of any group activity can be that a couple of students might do the majority of the speaking or the work. How then can we make sure that our ELs are playing an equal role? We suggest you:

Create a communication culture that values the sharing of diverse ideas,

Use gap activities where students have different pieces of information that they need to share with one another to complete the task, and

Teach and model language for inviting classmates to participate.

4. Make connections. With every academic conversation, we want to make sure our ELs are not only sharing their ideas but are also making connections to what their peers are saying, to prior learning, and to their life experiences. In order to build this important skill, you can:

Explicitly model how to make connections,

Teach language that students can use in to connect ideas (e.g., I want to add on to what Joaquin said...).

Practice discrete conversation skills (e.g., agreeing, disagreeing) through mini-lessons on familiar topics.

These four practices are just a starting point for building ELs' oral language use. We'd love to hear from you about strategies you're using to foster academic conversations with ELs in your classrooms. To continue the conversation and hear how nationally recognized ESL teacher engages her ELs in academic talk, please join us for our upcoming webinar, Emily Francis Supporting ELs' Oral Language Development Through Academic Conversations on Thursday, February 21st.

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Four Practices for Fostering ELs' Oral Language Development - SupportEd

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Engaging English Learners (ELs) in Academic Conversations Imagine this scene... your students are in small groups using images from a story that you recently read to discuss the story's themes. As you kneel down to listen in on one group's conversation, you overhear one of your quieter English learners say to her classmate, "Could you ...

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America has always been a place for newcomers — and schools are where we lay out the welcome mat. Amid the challenges of political hostility, declining resources, and violent conflicts that fuel mass migration, educators stand at the forefront, opening their classrooms to an increasingly diverse and global population of students — immigrants, undocumented students, English learners, and refugees — from near and far.

In a special series, we look at the strategies and practices that best support these newcomer students and their families, sharing insights that educators and school leaders can use to guide their work.

“Early education settings need to be places where dual-language learners and their families know that they have the ‘right to speak,’ that they will be heard with respect.”

– Paola Uccelli, professor, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Read more.

“Immigrant students have the determination, grit, perseverance, and problem-solving skills we say we value. So why aren’t their strengths better recognized? ”

– Jessica Lander, high school teacher, advocate for English learners
Read more.

Bilingualism as a Life Experience

We’re learning that speaking two languages can strengthen executive function skills, such as attention control and problem solving.

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America has always been a place for newcomers - and schools are where we lay out the welcome mat. Amid the challenges of political hostility, declining resources, and violent conflicts that fuel mass migration, educators stand at the forefront, opening their classrooms to an increasingly diverse and global population of students - immigrants, undocumented students, English learners, and refugees - from near and far.

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In this excerpt from The Essential Guide for Educating Beginning English Learners, Debbie Zacarian and Judie Haynes provide an overview of some of the challenges that newcomer ELLs must overcome, including limited schooling, trauma, and poverty.

Three different types of students

ELs with less formal educational and literacy experiences manifest themselves in various ways. One particular challenge in U.S. schools is a student with limited or interrupted prior formal education, commonly referred to as SLIFE. Drawing from DeCapua and Marshall (2011), we describe these students in three ways:

They may come from countries where schooling is not mandated; therefore, they have no knowledge of school. For example, they may not know how to hold a pencil or sit on a chair. There may not be a written language, or written language is a relatively new development.

They may begin school in one place and continually move, as is the case for many children of migrant workers. In this case, prolonged absences and changes in schools are commonplace. ELs may also come to the United States but travel frequently back to their home countries for extended amounts of time.

They may have attended school regularly in their native countries, but the quality of that education was significantly less than that of a U.S. education and they are several years behind their U.S. peers. This lack of quality education may be due to inadequate resources, a shortage of trained teachers, parents' lack of funds to pay for school, frequently occurring weather conditions that interrupt schooling (as is the case for some Indian students whose schools close during the rainy season), or the type of schooling they received.

Students experiencing trauma

Layered on the top of the complexities of working with students with varied literacy backgrounds are students who have experienced significant trauma in their lives. This could be due to war, natural disaster, dramatic poverty, or other major impacting stressors. Students who have these experiences represent all levels of the literacy spectrum. However, the traumatic disruption that they have experienced is significantly distinct from what would have been typical to their development. Behaviors ranging from impulsivity to hypervigilance are not unusual because students have lived or are living in a tumultuous setting and respond to trauma in a range of ways (Craig, 2008). A child who experienced the tsunami in Japan and lost his parents and other family members may be more likely to come from a literacy-oriented home than would children who experienced the earthquake in Haiti. Children from these two disaster areas who enter the United States will have educational needs that are quite different even though they share the horrific disruptive experience of a natural disaster.

ELs from traumatic backgrounds may also come from a variety of African countries where genocide interrupted their schooling for many yearsâ€"if it was available at all. Trauma is an integral part of their lives and deeply affects their capacity to learn and develop socially and emotionally in the way that students do when they have not experienced these disruptions. Because trauma is so relevant, we devote Chapter 8 to this important topic.

The figure below illustrates the overlap of trauma of the diverse population of ELs.

How poverty affects learning

An important distinction among ELs in relation to the total population of American public school students is that so many live in poverty. Indeed, almost 70% of all ELs in the United States live 200% below the poverty level ("A Distinct Population," 2009; Goldenberg & Coleman, 2010). Unlike peers whose families have more economic opportunities, ELs are among the poorest in our nation's schools.

According to educational researcher Diane Ravitch (2011), there is already an achievement gap when children enter kindergarten. Students who live in poverty have diminished chances of succeeding in school. While there is a correlation between the level of poverty and literacy and numeracy (Denny, 2002), we have to consider what this means in context. In the case of students living in poverty and in contexts where literacy behaviors are not practiced, exposure to literacy and numeracy practices are more dependent on what occurs in school than in the case of peers who come from homes in which literacy behaviors are practiced. However, as we discuss this book, we view all students as having many rich assets that can and should be honored and valued by their teachers. This can only occur when teachers have a deep understanding of their students and draw from their students' resources in the planning and delivery of instruction. To discuss this further requires that we look more closely at the language we have used to describe ELs from different literacy experiences.

Gonzalez, Moll, and Amanti (2005) describe all people as having important funds of knowledge. In this book, we offer many examples of how teachers can create an asset-based model that draws from these funds. An asset-based ideology of teaching occurs when instruction is deeply connected to our students, their families and their communities.

While all ELs need cultural sensitivity and effective and well developed programming to learn English and academic matters, students from families with limited formal education and literacy must be provided with programming that pays focused and intentional attention to literacy behavior development so that ELs from this group may develop these critical practices.

Individualistic and collectivist cultures

Another difference among ELs entering our schools is that some are from individualistic cultures and others collectivistic cultures. In the former, individual rights supersede duty to one's family, clan, ethnic group, or nation. In general, members of the dominant U.S. culture believe that children should be raised to think and judge independently. The goal of education is to have children learn to think like adults when they are still children. Children's efforts to think and use their independent thinking skills are praised and rewarded. Their wants, needs, and desires are often viewed as of primary concern in the family.

Many ELs come from collectivistic cultures in which the good of the individual is sacrificed to the good of the group. A person's moral worth is judged by how much he or she sacrifices himself to the group. Students from this type of culture work best when they can form a relationship with the group. They are we rather than I oriented. These factors are urgently important for all teachers and administrators to know.

Addressing the complex needs of English language learners

Fundamentally, how ELs are welcomed into our schools and the instruction they receive greatly determine their success in school. As educators, we have to be powerfully dedicated to understanding the backgrounds of our diverse populations of ELs, including those (1) who are academic language learners and do not yet possess the literacy skills that they need to succeed in school, (2) who are from polychromic cultures, (3) who have experienced trauma and violence, and/or (4) who are living in poverty.

Schools in the United States are basically developed around the idea that students will be from literacy-based cultures. As a group, teachers in the United States are predominately white, middle class, and female (Honawar, 2009; Ladson-Billings, 1995; Zeichner & Hoeft, 1996). We know what to do with students who come from this background. However, there is a mismatch between the linguistically and culturally diverse students who are actually sitting in classrooms and the teachers who teach them. This mismatch may occur even if schools hire teachers who come from diverse backgrounds but who come from literacyoriented homes.

One of the primary problems for children with these diverse experiences is that their programming is often not tailored to their needs (Zacarian, 2011). As opposed to carefully considering the significant needs of students from these diverse backgrounds, English proficiency is the only factor that is considered. Beginning-level learners pose a particular problem because many perceive that their primary need is to be able to converse socially in English and that, once this occurs, learning in an academic setting will follow.

For schools to create an optimal learning environment for beginning level ELs, we believe that certain fundamental elements must be included. The first is that schools must identify who their ELs are according to the information we have provided in this chapter:

Is the student U.S. born or from a country or commonwealth outside of the continental United States?

What is the literacy orientation of the student's family?

What is the student's educational history? What kind of school did the student have in his or her home country?

Has the student experienced trauma? If so, what type?

What is the socioeconomic status of the child's family?

Are they from a monochromic or polychromic culture?

Are they from an individualistic or collectivist culture?

Regardless of a child's prior literacy or life experiences (traumatic or not), socioeconomic status, and/or beliefs about individualism or collectivism, schools must provide an appropriate intake procedure and develop an asset-based model of programming.

Knowing that most educators are white, middle class, and possessing little experience with or training in teaching beginning ELs (Ladson-Billings, 1995; Zeichner & Hoeft, 1996), we approach this issue with the belief that we can provide programming that fits the needs of this dynamically growing population with specific strategies that will support the success of all students.

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Educating Newcomer ELLs with Limited Schooling: An Overview

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In this excerpt from The Essential Guide for Educating Beginning English Learners, Debbie Zacarian and Judie Haynes provide an overview of some of the challenges that newcomer ELLs must overcome, including limited schooling, trauma, and poverty. ELs with less formal educational and literacy experiences manifest themselves in various ways.

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Supporting the Journey of English Learners after Trauma

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Supporting the Journey of English Learners after Trauma

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Description

One of the hottest topics in education today is trauma-informed pedagogy. Much of what has been written in this area comes from counselors, therapists, and other experts in this field, but there is very little written specifically about the effects of trauma on English learners. This book has been written to address this need. The authors have sifted through the literature on trauma and social-emotional learning (SEL) to provide the material that applies directly to English learners. This book was written mainly for teachers of students with immigrant backgrounds and for the building administrators who support them, including counselors, paraprofessionals, and social workers.

This book is designed to provide a practical resource to help educators better understand the possible traumatic backgrounds of their students and how that could be affecting their academic, social, and emotional lives. It also focuses on how school personnel can create a safe environment in schools and classrooms to help students recognize, nurture, and expand the internal resilience that has enabled them to weather past situations and that will allow them to continue the healing process.

One chapter is devoted to the topic of self-care for educators who are working so hard to help students be resilient. An appendix features a list of recommended books on the topics of personal migration and resilience.

Available for sale worldwide

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Supporting the Journey of English Learners after Trauma

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
One of the hottest topics in education today is trauma-informed pedagogy. Much of what has been written in this area comes from counselors, therapists, and other experts in this field, but there is very little written specifically about the effects of trauma on English learners. This book has been...

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Students with Interrupted Formal Education

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Students with Interrupted Formal Education

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Students with interrupted formal education, also known by the acronym SIFE, are a relatively small proportion of recently arrived English language learners (ELLs), probably somewhere between 10 and 20 percent. ¹ However, these students often represent the most challenging of our ELLs because of their limited first-language literacy skills, frequent gaps in academic knowledge and skills, and, sometimes, critical social and emotional needs. Also, many tend to arrive unaccompanied as teenagers, making their need to catch up academically even more urgent.

Educators and other professionals who have the responsibility and privilege of getting to know these students, and who will be helping them to reach their full potential, need to have an understanding of where these students have been and why they may have certain gaps in their academic knowledge. Such an understanding will build empathy for these students, and it can also help classroom teachers discover the most effective methodologies and materials that will bridge the gap between what SIFE already know and can do, and what they will be expected to be able to do in their new academic setting. Since most ELLs spend the majority of their school day in mainstream classrooms, we hope that all teachers will see the value in knowing more about the background of their students and how their previous educational experiences (or lack thereof) impact their ability to perform on a daily basis.

So, who are these students, and where are they coming from?

The highest percentage of SIFE in the United States comes from Latin America, mainly Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. Refugee children make up the second highest number, with students from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Other smaller groups are composed of immigrant children from countries where schools were poorly equipped, teachers were inadequately trained, or school was not accessible due to geography, economics, or religion.

Characteristics of SIFE

What specifically defines students with interrupted formal education and sets them apart from a "typical" English language learner? One list created by researchers ² states that these students:

Are overage for their grade-level placement due to their weak academic skills and limited or inadequate formal schooling;

Have needs that traditional ESL (English as a second language) and bilingual programs can't or don't meet;

Have low or sometimes even no literacy skills in their first language and/or in English, and have little academic content-area knowledge;

Are socially and psychologically isolated from mainstream students;

Need approaches and materials that will help them catch up to and compete with mainstream students; and

Are at risk of failing or dropping out of traditional academic programs.

The final bullet point, the higher dropout rate of SIFE, is especially disturbing. Richard Fry, of the Pew Research Center, estimates that about 70 percent of immigrants with interrupted schooling drop out of high school! ³ Why are we seeing this huge number? One strong possibility is that the support these students are currently receiving is not adequate to meet their needs.

In addition to the dropout rate, there is another possibility that many of these young people never bother to enroll in school at all. While our book, Students with Interrupted Formal Education: Bridging Where They Are and What They Need, from which this article is excerpted, looks at what educators can do to provide assistance and support for the students who enter our classrooms, a larger societal issue is the number of students who choose work over school, as Fry notes:
The dropout rate for teens with school problems before migration is in excess of 70 percent, in comparison with 8 percent for other foreign-born youths. And their characteristics, especially for males, suggest that many of them are labor migrants. Their purpose in migrating was probably to seek employment in the labor market, and they may have never enrolled in U.S. schools. Recently arrived males who did not make adequate school progress before migration are twice as likely to be working as other foreign-born males, and nearly 40 percent of them are in the agriculture and construction industries, in comparison with 10 percent of other foreign-born youths. In contrast to the living arrangements of other foreign-born youths, the majority of recent arrivals with prior school problems do not reside with any parent in the household. Given their participation in the labor market and the degree to which they were behind in school, the prospects of enrolling these youths in traditional high school settings appear to be remote.⁴
Unfortunately, the programming designed for ELLs with academic skills and first-language literacy, as well as for the students who have been in Western schools for most if not all of their education, is not sufficient for most students with interrupted schooling. The gap between what students are expected to be able to do and the skill set that students have at their disposal is often too great, and students frequently give up.

Students with interrupted education need specialized programming and assistance, above and beyond what is normally provided to ELLs. This belief is supported in a recent statement from WIDA (a consortium of 40 states whose education departments have joined together to develop English proficiency standards and assessments)* about SIFE: "Students with this background often need their emotional, psychological, and physiological needs to be met before they are able to engage fully in the educational setting." ⁵ Once these needs are met, schools must help students build literacy skills in their home language and English, fill in the gaps in content knowledge, and support their social and emotional needs.

The Council of Chief State School Officers ⁶ created this list of supports it recommends for secondary school newcomers (including those with interrupted education):

1. Build environments that respond to the immediate social, cultural, and linguistic needs of immigrant adolescents with limited schooling.

2. Create structures that transcend high school academic departmental divisions to support simultaneous linguistic and academic development.

3. Form newcomer centers to ease transitions for newly immigrated students.

4. Implement flexible scheduling to reflect real needs and obligations of high school immigrants.

5. Align high school programs with higher education and adult education.

6. Use the full resources of the community to support immigrant students.

Identification of SIFE

One of the challenges of working with students with interrupted education is simply identification. Many school districts don't keep track of how much education students have received in their home country and their level of first-language literacy. Even when schools do ask, the answers are not always as helpful as it is assumed they would be. First of all, parents may state that their children have six or eight years of schooling, but attendance may have been sporadic; they may have attended one-room schoolhouses with poorly trained teachers; or school may have only been for a few hours a day.

Sometimes, the parents do not want to admit that their child was not in school regularly out of fear that they may not be permitted to enroll. They may not want to admit that the child was not able to attend because of the inability to pay for required books or uniforms, or that the child stayed home regularly to provide needed income for the family. In some countries, children with learning issues are not able to be provided for in a regular school setting, and the child simply stays home. To guarantee that their child will be admitted to the new school, certain facts are not disclosed, or the parents may not realize how schooling is different in their new setting.

As some researchers have written, "Gaps in school attendance are often due to sensitive matters; parents/guardians may be embarrassed, distressed, or feel threatened if they sense in any way that they are being censured or blamed for the lack of complete [and accurate] school records or their children's incomplete prior educational experiences." ⁷

However, it is important that schools collect as much data as possible about each student and share that information with the classroom teacher. As long as schools are unable to collect accurate knowledge of previous literacy and content instruction, matching students with the best instructional program will remain an elusive goal.

Brenda Custodio is an independent education consultant who prepares pre-service and in-service teachers at Ohio State University to work in second language classrooms, and is a former middle and high school English as a second language (ESL) teacher. Judith B. O'Loughlin is an independent education consultant, a former trainer of pre-service educators at New Jersey City University, and a former English, ESL, and special education teacher. This article is excerpted with permission from their book, Students with Interrupted Formal Education: Bridging Where They Are and What They Need. Copyright 2017, Corwin. All rights reserved.

*For more on WIDA, visit https://wida.wisc.edu. ( return to article)
†For more on building ELLs' literacy skills, see "Educating English Language Learners" in the Fall 2018 issue of American Educator, available at www.aft.org/ae/fall2018/august. ( return to article)

Endnotes

1. Advocates for Children of New York, Students with Interrupted Formal Education: A Challenge for New York City Public Schools (New York: 2010); and J. Ruiz-de-Velasco and M. Fix, Overlooked and Underserved: Immigrant Students in U.S. Secondary Schools (Washington, DC: Urban Institute, 2000).
2. Y. Freeman and D. Freeman, Closing the Achievement Gap: How to Reach Limited-Formal-Schooling and Long-Term English Learners (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2002), 33.
3. R. Fry, The Higher Drop-Out Rate of Foreign-Born Teens: The Role of Schooling Abroad (Washington, DC: Pew Research Center, 2005).
4. Fry, The Higher Drop-Out Rate, 1.
5. WIDA Consortium, Focus on SLIFE: Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education (Madison, WI: 2015), 2.
6. Council of Chief State School Officers, Immigrant Students and Secondary School Reform: Compendium of Best Practices (Washington, DC: 2004), 11.
7. A. DeCapua, W. Smathers, and L. Tang, Meeting the Needs of Students with Limited or Interrupted Schooling (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan, 2009), 10.

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Students with Interrupted Formal Education

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Students with interrupted formal education, also known by the acronym SIFE, are a relatively small proportion of recently arrived English language learners (ELLs), probably somewhere between 10 and 20 percent. 1 However, these students often represent the most challenging of our ELLs because of their limited first-language literacy skills, frequent gaps in academic knowledge and skills, and, sometimes, critical social and emotional needs.

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November 2022 - Volume 26, Number 3
https://doi.org/10.55593/ej.26103a16
Luis Javier Pentón Herrera
University of Warsaw, Poland
<luis.penton gmail.com>

Brenda Custodio
Ohio State University, USA
<custodio.1 osu.edu>

Judith O'Loughlin
Language Matters Education Consultants, LLC
<joeslteach aol.com>

Abstract

Recent trends of migration have contributed to the growing number of Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education (SLIFE) in our K-12 classrooms in the United States and worldwide. Simultaneously, the visibility of SLIFE in academic publications from around the world (i.e., Custodio & O'Loughlin, 2017; DeCapua et al., 2020; Pentón Herrera, 2022) contributes to a general understanding of best practices on what this population needs and how teachers can best help them. In this article, we rely on recent and relevant available publications, as well as personal experiences, to recommend essential social-emotional and academic considerations that teachers and stakeholders should know to support SLIFE effectively. The social-emotional considerations shared include social and emotional needs, cultural dissonance, connections to programming and services, and interpersonal relationships. The academic considerations shared are programming, first language (L1) literacy instruction, appropriate scaffolding, oscillating target language (L2) literacy instruction, and authentic learning beyond the school walls.

Keywords: academic support, social-emotional support, students with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE), literacy education and instruction

Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education (SLIFE) are a growing population in our K-12 classrooms. This population of learners is highly diverse, heterogeneous, and arrives in our learning spaces with unique strengths and needs that many of their English learner (EL) counterparts may not have. In recent years, the visibility of SLIFE has been increasing in academic publications from around the world (i.e., Custodio & O'Loughlin, 2017; DeCapua et al., 2020; Pentón Herrera, 2022) which has contributed to our general understanding of best practices on what this population needs and how teachers can best help them. In this article, we rely on recent and relevant available publications, as well as personal experiences, to recommend essential social-emotional and academic considerations that teachers and stakeholders should know to effectively support SLIFE.

The term students with limited or interrupted formal education was coined by DeCapua, Smathers, and Tang (2009), updating the previously-used term students with interrupted formal education (SIFE). In their book, DeCapua et al. (2009) added the 'L' to the term SIFE to indicate that some of the students in the group have more than just an interrupted education but may have extremely limited formal schooling experiences. Students with interrupted formal education are a subset of newly-arrived ELs who are receiving increased attention around the world. In this article, we have chosen to use the acronym SLIFE for the primary reason that, although there are numerous terms for this group of students, SLIFE "is currently the term most commonly used when discussing recent-arrival adolescent English learner (EL) students" (Browder, 2019, p. 43).

SLIFE is the acronym now used by the World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA; see WIDA 2022), the creator of the most widely used placement and assessment tool in the United States, as well as the term used in the forthcoming iteration of the Newcomer Toolkit by the U.S. Department of Education. While there is no universal description of who qualifies for the term SLIFE, and there are challenges connected to its operationalization (see Browder et al., 2022), most educational agencies and organizations apply the term to students who have at least two years of interrupted formal education due to a number of possible factors, most of which were beyond the family to control, such as violence, political or religious restrictions, or economic hardship. In addition, SLIFE may limited backgrounds in reading and writing in their native language(s) and may be below grade level in most academic skills (Freeman et al., 2002).

Introducing Ourselves and Our Writing Perspective

We would like to take this opportunity to share information about us and the vision behind the writing of this manuscript. Luis Javier Pentón Herrera is a Cuban-born teacher who was exposed to the topic of limited or interrupted formal education early in life. His father attended school up to third grade and his paternal grandmother never joined formal schooling. Growing up, Luis Javier knew that his paternal grandmother could not read or write, but did not understand why. One day, he heard someone use the word analfabeta (illiterate) to describe his grandmother and, from that day forward, he became obsessed with learning the intricacies of literacy and reading and writing. As a teacher in the United States, Luis Javier has taught Spanish and English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) in all grades (K-12) and has supported SLIFE in K-12 and in adult learning contexts. The experiences he is most fond of is working with and supporting Indigenous SLIFE from Guatemala in high school, which lead to different publications (e.g., Pentón Herrera, 2021).

Brenda Custodio worked with refugee-background students in a large urban school district, where she helped to create a newcomer program to meet the needs of the predominately SLIFE population. Her experiences led to the publication of three professional development books: one on newcomer programs (Custodio, 2011), one on Students with Interrupted Formal Education (Custodio & O'Loughlin, 2017), and one on supporting immigrant students who have experienced trauma (O'Loughlin & Custodio, 2020). The last two books are co-authored with Judith O'Loughlin.

Judith O'Loughlin is an educational consultant and teacher trainer. She has thirty years of teaching in public schools in the U.S. in English, English as a second language, and special education, in small population, low incidence programs. She has also worked in Japan at Soka University, as a visiting professor, teaching graduate candidates how to teach English as a Foreign Language (EFL) to young learners. She has trained teachers in credentialing programs in the areas of second language acquisition and learning, bilingual special education, sheltered instruction, SLIFE, differentiating instruction and strategies, and curriculum development in ESL and EFL low incidence programs. She is the author of chapters in several edited publications, and the author of the Academic language accelerator (O'Loughlin, 2010) and co-author (with Brenda Custodio) of Students with interrupted formal education: Bridging where they are and what they need (Custodio & O'Loughlin, 2017) and Supporting the journey of English learners after trauma (O'Loughlin & Custodio, 2020).

The three of us are practitioners who have supported SLIFE for many years of our lives. We believe SLIFE transformed our perspectives about teaching and learning and also taught us how to be more compassionate and supportive educators. When we first encountered SLIFE in our classrooms, we realized that our teacher preparation programs had not prepared us to support this student population and, to date, SLIFE continue to be hugely underrepresented and invisible in teacher preparation programs in the United States (Custodio & O'Loughlin, 2022). For this reason, we came together to write this article for teachers working with and supporting SLIFE. Although the context and experiences shared in this manuscript are primarily connected to SLIFE in the United States, we believe this manuscript can also be helpful for teachers in other countries.

During the preparation of this manuscript, we reviewed-to our knowledge-all available publications about SLIFE, which remain remarkedly limited in size and depth. From these publications and our personal experiences, we compiled a list of social-emotional and academic considerations that teachers can read about and use in their classrooms to support SLIFE. Our goal with writing this manuscript is to make the information presented here as clear and practical as possible. As practitioners, we know first-hand the enduring gap between theory and practice in language teaching and learning (Ur, 2019; Yin, 2019), which is partly caused by the highly sophisticated, philosophical language used in the texts assigned in teacher preparation programs. As such, we hope to present clear, concise, and practical suggestions in this manuscript that teachers can readily use to support SLIFE in their learning spaces.

A Note of Clarification About Our Positionality and Language Used

Given the rising tensions and lingering concerns in the field with terms and deficit-focused vocabulary, we find it necessary to explain our positionality and how we use language in this article. The three of us are practitioners who taught SLIFE in different grade levels in K-12 and adult education. As such, we experienced first-hand the challenges SLIFE endure in formal school settings due to the lack of available research and practitioner knowledge on how to best support them. Thus, we understand that the vocabulary we use throughout this manuscript, such as the word limited, may be perceived as deficit-based terms. However, our intention is not to approach the conversation about SLIFE from a deficit-based standpoint or a place of judgment. Instead, we use this term and other words throughout the manuscript descriptively, referring to the prior formal schooling experiences of SLIFE and offering practical solutions that teachers can use. We acknowledge that SLIFE and all students arrive with assets and proficiencies that extend well beyond formal education settings, such as personality assets, emotional intelligence, and resilience, to name a few. Nonetheless, for the purpose of this manuscript, we focus on social-emotional and academic supports within the formal school setting and, specifically, on the SLIFE population that arrives with developing print literacy, little to no experience with formal schooling, and with social-emotional needs. For a deeper conversation about the problematization of the term SLIFE and similar terms to describe students with interrupted or limited formal schooling, see Browder et al. (2022).

Social-Emotional Considerations to Support SLIFE

Story from the Field: Told by Luis Javier Pentón Herrera

Jacqueline (pseudonym), an 18-year-old student, arrived to our high school from Honduras with very limited formal schooling experience. She was hard of hearing (which also affected her speech), so schools in Honduras could not support her learning and she stopped going to school during her elementary school years. When she arrived in our classroom, Jacqueline was terrified. Tears would often run down her cheeks during class and, during class changes, she would freeze in the hallway frightened by the large number of students expeditiously moving from classroom to classroom. Formal schooling in the United States was, in many ways, a brand-new experience for Jacqueline that was proving too overwhelming, prompting her to consider dropping out of school. I, along with Jacqueline, her mother, and a school counselor, designed a plan to tend to Jacqueline's social-emotional needs and keep her in school. We recognized that supporting her social-emotional needs was vital for her learning. Our plan proved successful, and Jacqueline completed successfully two years at our school before being transferred to a school that could best cater to her hearing needs.

Jacqueline's story is a real story; one of many stories from SLIFE. Many SLIFE, such as Jacqueline, arrive to our schools with many strong emotions they do not know how to deal with. In our experience, no learning can take place when students are distraught, afraid, or suffering from social-emotional issues. As such, and based on our collective experience supporting the social-emotional needs of SLIFE, we share four relevant social-emotional considerations teachers should keep in mind when supporting SLIFE, namely: (a) social and emotional needs, (b) cultural dissonance, (c) connections to programming and services, and (d) interpersonal relationships. We recommend that these four social-emotional considerations are addressed simultaneously (or before) the academic consideration shared below for the benefit of SLIFE.

Social and Emotional Needs

Due to their life experiences, it is not uncommon for SLIFE to be dealing with the effects of trauma in their lives both before and after arrival. DeCapua, Smathers, and Tang (2009, p. 40) list the following social-emotional, affective needs of SLIFE:

Social, emotional, and psychological isolation due to family separation

Difficulty developing formation of social identity

Unclear sense of belonging and purpose

Limited community support network

Cultural adjustment difficulty

These and other social and emotional challenges are compounded by the frustration of trying to adapt to a new school environment and blend into a peer community, which at times, may be hostile. How can a classroom teacher provide the support that is vitally needed? When students first arrive, entering a safe and welcoming environment is critical. For some students, school may be the safest portion of their day. Teachers who understand the backgrounds of their students, even in a general way, can better help students navigate the transition to the new life (O'Loughlin & Custodio, 2020). Often, it is the bilingual or ESOL teacher who becomes the mentor and advisor. It does not require a therapist degree to show empathy and support. The structure and routine of the school itself can become central to the healing of a trauma-background student. See Pentón Herrera (2020) for some examples of how teachers may incorporate social and emotional learning in the ESOL classroom.

Cultural Dissonance

In addition to the obvious academic challenges encountered by SLIFE, often their worldview is in a jarring disconnect to their new context.

Learners with no, minimal, or limited exposure to formal education generally do not share the expectations and assumptions of their new setting. It is these learners who are likely to struggle and find themselves confounded by the ways in which the language and content are presented, practiced, and assessed (Marshall & DeCapua, 2013, p. ix).

This situation and the feelings of alienation, disorientation, or not belonging that SLIFE experience in schools has been labeled as cultural dissonance (Ibarra, 2001). Cultural dissonance in education creates confusion, and sometimes conflict, for SLIFE who are moving into a new school culture, academic learning, and unfamiliar cultural environment. It is often the 'hidden curriculum' that creates confusion about a school's academic and social expectations for all students. Just as many ELs, SLIFE bring with them their own cultural norms, including the ways they learn, behave, interact, and communicate. Social and cultural expectations in Western schools are not obvious to newcomers from other cultures.

"The concept of the 'hidden curriculum' refers to a number of unspoken and, even unwritten, behaviors and norms existing within an educational institution" (O'Loughlin & Custodio, 2020, p. 92). These are unspoken physical and social aspects within a school. Further, the hidden curriculum is the school's subliminal culture, which is often defined by artifacts present throughout the physical building, including awards, artwork, and school signage available only in English. It tells students, without words, 'this is the way we do things around here.' The physical aspects of a school show SLIFE what the school stands for and supports. For example, when you see cases of trophies, awards, walls with banners, and mascots celebrating athletics, when you enter the building, you know the school values the students who excel athletically. Or the school may have photos and artifacts from social events such as school plays, clubs, and dances, showing that the school values social involvement. There are often unwritten or unspoken years of common practice norms of social behavior in hallways, lunchrooms, classrooms, and outdoor school areas that are expected of students, but never explained. Finally, when there is no visual representation of the diverse population in the school, such as flags, maps, signs in multiple languages, and/or artifacts from the cultures in the school, SLIFE feel confused and unwelcome.

It is beneficial for teachers to know about the hidden curriculum because certain attitudes and behaviors, even though often communicated nonverbally, are expected of all students, and they are extremely difficult for SLIFE to comprehend without being provided with both guidance and specific instruction. Richard Lavoie (2005) asserts that all learners, with appropriate and differentiated instruction focused on their needs, can master the standard "3R" curriculum (Relevant, a Review, and Realistic), but their success in school can be negatively affected if the hidden curriculum, consisting of an expansive variety of social skills and strategies, including peer interactions and group dynamics, is ignored. The ESOL professional is often the person playing the role of game master for the students with interrupted schooling as they learn to adjust to this new culture.

Connections to Programming and Services

Some issues experienced by SLIFE can best be resolved with the support of informed and caring school personnel such as guidance counselors, social workers, and nurses. For example, schedules that allow students to work while continuing their education can make a difference for students who are supporting themselves and their families. Also, counselors who can help SLIFE make informed decisions about the value of a high school diploma and realistic post-secondary options are critical. The pathway to college and career training is complex even for native English speakers, and navigating this system requires support from experts, either inside the school system or through community organizations.

All too often, SLIFE enter formal schooling with issues that are beyond the classroom teacher and sometimes even the school system itself to provide. They may (or may not) be living with extended family for various reasons and need social services such as clothing, housing, utilities, and food support. Students and families who are undocumented may also need affordable health care, including vision, hearing, and dental. Some schools have been able to meet this need with school-based health clinics, some of which also have counseling services. Students who enter the country as unaccompanied minors may be reunited with family members, including parents, whom they have not seen in several years. The reunification process can be extremely stressful for all concerned and may require outside assistance to make the transition smoother. Some students may also need legal assistance with immigration issues for themselves or their family members. Immigration attorney fees are extremely costly, and finding affordable legal aid may require knowledgeable community assistance.

Interpersonal Relationships

At its heart, effective teaching and learning begin with the establishment of clear, positive interpersonal relationships among classmates and teachers. For SLIFE, specifically, establishing positive human bonds with their classmates and teachers may affect their learning experiences and whether or not they decide to remain in school or drop out. At the same time, fostering a culture of respectful interpersonal relationships can help prevent disruption in the classroom, for example, having some students make fun of SLIFE for their developing print literacy skills (see Pentón Herrera, 2021). Teachers should keep in mind that due to their life experiences, forming human bonds may initially prove difficult for SLIFE, a common effect of having experienced trauma (O'Loughlin & Custodio, 2020). For example, some SLIFE may not know how to form interpersonal relationships with classmates or peers of their age group, which may generate feelings of isolation and exclusion in the formal schooling environment. Paulo Freire (1998) reminds us that "the relationship between educators and learners is complex, fundamental, and difficult; it is a relationship about which we should think constantly" (p. 60). Educators should consider the building and maintaining of caring interpersonal relationships among students and teachers as a vital step of social and emotional support for SLIFE.

Academic Considerations to Support SLIFE

Story from the Field: Told by Brenda Custodio

One year, a student from El Salvador enrolled in our newcomer program. At first, he seemed to be fitting in well and making academic progress in his subjects and in English. Then he began having issues with attendance and behavior. Discussions with the counselor revealed that he was living in an apartment with three other teens. All four were in the United States without family and were pooling their money from their restaurant jobs to survive. Our student was working late at night and having difficulty getting up in time for school. He did not have time to work on schoolwork in the evening and had no one available for emotional or financial support. We adjusted his schedule to allow him to come late to school, began weekly check-ins with the counselor, connected him with community agencies for food and clothing, and alerted the teachers about his issues. He was able to make it through the schoolyear, but never came back the next year. Even with all the academic and social supports we were able to provide, we still wondered if there was more we could have done to support him to stay in school.

The vignette shared by Brenda is a real story from the field. SLIFE often have lives and realities outside of school walls that are different from non-SLIFE, through no fault of their own. Their realities often collide with the rigid formal schooling agenda and priorities, which makes their participation and integration even more challenging. Thus, when supporting SLIFE' academic needs, formal schooling should consider SLIFE' realities to better support their success. In this section, we share five relevant academic considerations teachers should keep in mind when supporting SLIFE, namely: (a) programming, (b) first language (L1) literacy instruction, (c) appropriate scaffolding, (d) oscillating target language (L2) literacy instruction, and (e) authentic learning beyond the school walls. In our view, these five academic considerations are essential and non-negotiable for SLIFE, especially during their first year of formal schooling in their host country. As an important reminder, these supports will take time and practice from both teachers and SLIFE. Also, the type of support needed will vary depending on the amount of previous formal education the student has experienced.

Programming

Suggestion 1: Daily SLIFE Programming

It is important that SLIFE be welcomed into a program that is designed specifically for them and their needs. When designing these programs, teachers and stakeholders need to detach themselves from traditional school programming mindsets. SLIFE programs should be tailored-made for their unique needs, which are often different from the needs addressed in traditional school programming. Designing and implementing a program tailored specifically for SLIFE may require multiple steps and processes at different hierarchical levels. See Custodio (2011), pages 15-17, for an example of a checklist for establishing a newcomer program, which often may be one of the best methods for supporting SLIFE because, while all SLIFE are, by definition, newcomers, not all newcomers will have interrupted schooling. In this section, we primarily focus on programming at the building level (i.e., schedule of classes and instruction). Important considerations teachers, school counselors, and school administrators should have when welcoming SLIFE are:

SLIFE need a sheltered, day-long program designed specifically for them. While this may not be possible in schools and districts with low numbers, SLIFE will benefit from being assigned to classes that provide instruction in L2, print literacy (i.e., reading and writing) in the L1 when possible (more about this in the section below), and the delivery of content in the L2 with heavy L1 support. See Table 1 below for an example of a day-long SLIFE program for high school. Note that, except for the L1 language professionals, all the other classes should be taught by certified ESOL teachers. For clarity, throughout this article, we will use the term L1 language professional to include all professionals teaching SLIFE in their L1, which may be world language teachers, L1 tutors, bilingual educators, and/or L1 specialists, to name a few. Also, we recognize other terms used such as English as a second language (ESL) teacher, English language development (ELD) teacher, and English learner (EL) teacher. For consistency, we use ESOL teacher throughout this article.

Whenever possible, the class size for SLIFE needs to be small (less than 15 students). SLIFE require constant informal and formative evaluations to ensure they are following the instruction, and need individualized scaffolding. In mixed (SLIFE and non-SLIFE), large classes, SLIFE tend to become invisible and teachers are unable to provide adequate support, which may lead to stagnation, demotivation and, eventually, dropping out of school (Custodio & O'Loughlin, 2017; Pentón Herrera, 2021).

SLIFE require individualized content- and language-based support at their level (Windle & Miller, 2019). This means that teachers should approach SLIFE with an inquisitive mindset of wanting to learn about where they are and start instruction at that level. Instruction for SLIFE should be flexible and adjust to the specific needs of the student when possible (Custodio, 2011; Custodio & O'Loughlin, 2017), especially during their first year of school.

Have a paraprofessional or co-teacher in the classroom to provide individualized support.

Courses offered in the SLIFE program should count toward their credit count for graduation. For adolescent SLIFE in high school, specifically, this consideration is of utmost importance as many of them have very limited time to graduate before they reach the maximum age to continue attending public school. One way to do this is by providing elective credits for their initial transition courses.

Involve certified guidance counselors who are familiar with the issues and challenges of SLIFE and how their developing knowledge of formal secondary schooling (6-12 grade) protocols affects their ability to make informed post-secondary choices.

Table 1. Example of an Ideal Daily SLIFE Programming in High School

* NOTE: L1 print literacy tutoring is a class for SLIFE with the same L1. The class should be tailored to L1 print literacy instruction. See more information in the "L1 support" section below.

A final point we would like to make about Table 1 is that, during the last hour and ten minutes (or last class period of the day), SLIFE need time to study independently, in groups, and/or with teacher support. During study hall, SLIFE have the opportunity to work on homework or assignments, and they can use the paraprofessional and ESOL teacher(s) to support them as needed. This daily time is vital for SLIFE as they are learning to become familiar with the daily routine of formal education, and with the concepts of homework and independent study. Also, SLIFE may not have adults at home who are able to support them academically because their parents may also have limited or interrupted formal education, or students may be unaccompanied minors. For these reasons, the study hall provides additional opportunities to help students succeed in school by completing assignments and homework with a teacher and/or classmate's support.

Suggestion 2: Programming for Low Incidence Programs

Low Incidence ESOL programs are programs in which there are small numbers of multilingual learners at each grade level and thus making it difficult for a school to create a program that serves students by grade level. In addition, language level programming is also difficult since there are usually no significant clusters of learners at any one language level. Teachers in low incidence programs often create multi-grade multilevel pull-out instructional groups for elementary instruction. At the secondary level, students are taught together in one multi-grade multilevel class for multiple class periods during the school day. Instruction is designed around themes in a content area, such flight, habitats, forces within nature, revolution, communities, or heroes. The instructional units introduce cross-content topics within the theme and vocabulary, such as science and math, social studies, and language arts. Reading materials (content picture books, trade books, and thematically organized ESOL texts) and assignments are differentiated by language level. Under this programming model, students work in whole group and cooperative group reading/writing/oral language practice activities.

L1 Literacy Instruction

First language support is a staple of effective ESOL instruction. However, for SLIFE, L1 support needs to go a step further because many SLIFE have limited print literacy in their home language. In addition to providing L1 scaffolding in L2 content classes, SLIFE programs need to incorporate daily L1 tutoring services where the L1 language professional focuses on L1 print literacy instruction. Ideally, the L1 language professional and ESOL teacher will work on a model similar to parallel teaching where the L1 language professional reviews the content students are learning in at least one of the L2 courses (e.g., Mathematics, English, Science, etc.) while focusing on L1 print literacy. In this class period, students need to be grouped or separated by their L1, and each group works with their L1 language professional. During these L1 print literacy classes, instruction may move along the L1-L2 scale; that is, students may primarily use L1 to talk about the content learned in the L2 courses.

We understand that L1 print literacy tutoring may be a fairly new concept for some countries, such as the United States and that L1 language professionals may not have the preparation for it. However, we emphasize the vitality of offering L1 print literacy services to SLIFE on a daily basis. Pentón Herrera & Duany (2016) share some considerations and topics of interest that Spanish teachers/tutors can use to support SLIFE' L1 print literacy. Also, Winlund (2020) shares details of how L1 tutoring services are offered to Somali SLIFE via translanguaging (Otheguy et al., 2015). In cases where there is no available L1 language professional for the student's L1, that class period should be dedicated to additional individualized instruction in the L2.

Appropriate Scaffolding

The introduction of new information to SLIFE needs to be (1) contextualized, (2) connected to the students' prior knowledge, and (3) scaffolded through multimodal designs and through the combination of oral transmission with the written word (see Marshall & DeCapua, 2013; Frydland, 2022). Contextualized instruction is commonly defined in the literature as teaching and learning that focuses on the delivery of specific content by providing concrete applications (Baker et al., 2009; DeCapua et al., 2020). SLIFE need highly contextualized instruction to draw on students' prior knowledge, experiences, and linguistic repertoire while connecting this information to the students' real world. Kidwell (2022) shares examples of highly contextualized language instruction where she and her co-teacher included real photographs of locations in the neighborhood (e.g., post office, bank, etc.) to introduce vocabulary. This way, students could connect the new vocabulary (i.e., content) with real-life applications or places (i.e., context) and 'see' how the new information is relatable and useful in their present life. An important consideration is to limit the amount of new information taught to SLIFE and to create opportunities to revisit and revise this information to promote memorization. For example, Kidwell (2022) suggests teaching no more than a dozen new vocabulary words at a time to increase good reception and memorization.

Connecting instruction to students' funds of knowledge (see Moll et al., 1992) and prior background solidifies the acquisition and retention of new information (Custodio & O'Loughlin, 2017; Kidwell, 2022; Windle & Miller, 2019; Winlund, 2020). This means that teachers should first learn about their students' backgrounds to effectively incorporate activities and information that is relevant to them and their lives in the host country. At this step, forging meaningful personal relationships with students is necessary to learn about them, their interests, and their experiences. As explained by Frydland (2022), forging open and trusting relationships with SLIFE requires teachers to share information about themselves, create a welcoming and safe environment, and model information-sharing techniques/protocols. Linville and Pentón Herrera (2022) share an example of how an ESOL and an art teacher collaborated to use a student's background knowledge to transform decontextualized text into contextualized art. Also, Winlund (2020) reports how a teacher relied on their students' geographical background knowledge about their native countries as a starting point to explain the equivalents in their host country.

Lastly, when introducing information to SLIFE, teachers should rely on multimodal designs and on the combination of oral transmission with the written word. In the literature, multimodal designs are understood as a combination of two or more modes of resources that promote meaning (see Kress, 2010). In the classroom, this translates to designing the introduction of topics by relying on two or more modes such as visual (e.g., image), text (i.e., written language), sensory (e.g., audio, smell), and gestural (e.g., body language, acting, total physical response [TPR]), to name a few. For SLIFE, it is essential that teachers use multimodal designs during instruction, always relying on oral transmission as a foundational requisite for delivery. Teaching content through only one mode of instruction (e.g., using speaking only, or using text only) is not helpful for SLIFE (Custodio, 2011; DeCapua et al., 2020; Winlund, 2020); instead, SLIFE benefit from teaching that includes an oral component (introduce information orally), and rely on at least two additional modes. For example, teachers can introduce vocabulary about fruits by saying the name of the fruit out loud (oral component), showing a picture of the fruit with the word/text (visual and text modes), and having students touch and smell the actual fruit (sensory mode).

Oscillating Language Instruction

When we welcome SLIFE into our learning spaces, we should keep in mind that, in addition to being new students in the host country, they might also be participating in formal education for the first time in their lives. This means that, regardless of age, SLIFE need to be explicitly taught what is expected from them in a formal school environment and what constitutes acceptable behaviors in school (see Custodio & O'Loughlin, 2017). Examples of formal schooling expectations that SLIFE may not be familiar with can range from waiting in line to organizing their notebook and taking notes (Frydland, 2022). From the moment SLIFE arrive in our classrooms, everything they are experiencing needs to be considered learning; all information is new content knowledge for them. With this in mind, teachers should be mindful that language instruction for SLIFE needs to follow an oscillating pattern, that is, moving repeatedly and flexibly from side to side. More specifically, language instruction should oscillate from explicit to implicit, and from contextualized to decontextualized language instruction.

In the literature, explicit instruction is understood as a direct and structured form of teacher-guided instruction (see Friedman et al., 2022). In explicit instruction, teachers explain in detail the expectations, content, and step-by-step processes that students need to follow to learn and complete tasks. On the other hand, in implicit instruction, educators do not explain in detail the goals or expectations. Instead, in implicit instruction, teachers present the information or problem by creating opportunities for independent, conscious learning (Khamesipour, 2015), where students can 'discover' the solutions, answers, or conclusions by themselves. In the first weeks (or months) of school, language instruction for SLIFE should be predominantly explicit (e.g., modeling effective note-taking skills, explaining the content in detail, and showing them how to complete tasks) and, as students become more comfortable, the teacher can slowly assign more responsibilities to them by moving toward implicit instruction. This practice of language instruction needs to follow a continuous pattern of oscillation to avoid overwhelming SLIFE; the goal is to find a balance between guided language instruction, slow release of responsibilities, and return to guided language instruction until the student is ready for additional autonomy, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Oscillating Implicit-Explicit Language Instruction

Similar to explicit and implicit instruction, SLIFE benefit from oscillating contextualized and decontextualized language instruction. In formal education, contextualized language instruction is understood as teaching, learning, and assessment practices aimed at developing specific language skills in specific contexts (Baker et al., 2009; DeCapua et al., 2020). The importance of contextualized instruction for SLIFE is best seen in Marrero Colón and Désir (2022), who share the story of Ronaldo, a student with limited formal education who was able to graduate from an auto technician certification program by learning language (and content) in a highly contextualized environment. On the other hand, decontextualized language instruction, preferred over contextualized in formal education settings (Hornberger & Skilton-Sylvester, 2010), "consists of language parts divorced from the whole, such as grammatical abstractions often found in school textbooks" (Winlund, 2000, p. 4). Teachers should find opportunities where students can first learn language in context and then transition to using that vocabulary in decontextualized conversations. In the section below, we share more information about how teachers might be able to accomplish this through authentic learning experiences beyond the school walls.

Authentic Learning Beyond the School Walls

Opportunities for authentic learning beyond the school walls, such as virtual and in-person field trips and spending class time in the students' community, serve as a starting point for literacy instruction and helps SLIFE transition from contextualized to decontextualized modes (Kidwell, 2022; Frydland, 2022; Pentón Herrera, 2021; Winlund, 2020). In a recent study, Pentón Herrera (2021) shared the story of Traquilino, a student struggling in the traditional school setting. In this study, Pentón Herrera (2021) learned that, for Tranquilino, experiences in the real world were more beneficial and preferred, and also contributed to language learning and retention of contextualized information. Similarly, Kidwell (2022) found that taking the adult SLIFE with whom she worked to the local grocery store during class hours to learn how to weigh produce and information about money motivated students and helped them learn the information (i.e., content) in a contextualized real-life setting. Lastly, Frydland (2022) and Winlund (2020) report how taking students to field trips in the community helps them use the contextualized knowledge they learn in these real-life experiences in decontextualized settings. That is, students were able to acquire, retain, and transition from general words or vocabulary learned in the field trips, to more specific (or academic) vocabulary, such as using the word dinosaur, instead of animal (Pentón Herrera, 2021), and calling a river by its proper name instead of saying 'water' (Winlund, 2020).

Final Thoughts

We would like to end this article by acknowledging that the information we share here is non-exhaustive. There are multiple layers filled with factors that teachers and stakeholders serving SLIFE should consider, such as state-level requirements in teacher preparation programs (see Custodio & O'Loughlin, 2022), pre- and in-service teacher professional development (see Ledger & Montero, 2022; Marrero Colón & Désir, 2022), advocacy for SLIFE (see Linville & Pentón Herrera, 2022), family involvement and family literacy education for SLIFE (see Cruzado-Guerrero & Martínez-Alba, 2022), the intersection of gender, identity, and formal schooling for SLIFE (see Trinh, 2022), and concerns with the operationalization and definition of SLIFE for placement purposes (see Browder et al., 2022), to name a few. However, our goal in this article is not to address all the challenges SLIFE face but to offer essential, practical, and accessible social-emotional and academic considerations that teachers need to know to support SLIFE in their learning spaces, especially those with very limited experiences in formal school settings. We hope this article will serve as foundational reading in all programs educating pre- and in-service teachers. Also, we hope scholars will use this information to continue advancing the knowledge of how to best support students with limited or interrupted formal education around the world.

Note

[1] SIFE or SLIFE usually refers to students who have entered U.S. school districts with at least two fewer years of academic education than traditional newcomers. SIFE and SLIFE are used in different areas of the U.S. as interchangeable terms, with the latter term including the word 'limited', concretely expressing what is implied in the former term. Other terms that are used around the world to describe SLIFE include low-literate refugees, learners with limited prior schooling, or students with minimal, severely interrupted or no previous formal schooling, to name a few. For clarity, the term SLIFE is plural.
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About the Authors

Luis Javier Pentón Herrera served as the 38th President of Maryland TESOL from 2018 to 2019. He currently serves as Assistant Professor at the University of Warsaw in the Faculty of Modern Languages and The Institute of Applied Linguistics, and as the Coordinator of the Graduate TESOL Certificate at The George Washington University. In addition, he serves as the Social Responsibility Interest Section (SRIS) Past Co-Chair (2022-2023) at TESOL International Association. ORCID ID: 0000-0002-8865-8119

Brenda Custodio is a former secondary ESL teacher in Columbus, Ohio. She currently works in teacher education at The Ohio State University as well as serving as a consultant in the areas of literacy, newcomers, trauma, and SLIFE. She is the author of three books on supporting English learners; one on setting up a newcomer program, and two that she co-authored with Judith O'Loughlin on SIFE and on supporting immigrants with trauma backgrounds. ORCID ID: 0000-0001-9131-973x

Judith B. O'Loughlin is a former K-8 ESL and special education New Jersey teacher. She now resides in California, working as a consultant in the areas of differentiated sheltered instruction for both ESL and bilingual special education, newcomers, trauma, and SLIFE. She is the author chapters in several edited books and three books, one on academic language strategies, and two that she co-authored with Dr. Custodio on SIFE and supporting immigrants with trauma backgrounds. ORCID ID: 0000-0002-2830-1599

To Cite this Article

Pentón Herrera, L. J., Custodio, B., & O'Loughlin, J.B. (2022). Providing social-emotional and
academic supports to SLIFE: What every teacher needs to know. Teaching English as a Second Language Electronic Journal (TESL-EJ), 26(3). https://doi.org/10.55593/ej.26103a16

References

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Browder, C., Pentón Herrera, L. J., & Franco, J. (2022). Advancing the conversation: Humanizing and problematizing the conversation about the students we call SLIFE. In L. J. Pentón Herrera (Ed.), English and Students with limited or interrupted formal education: Global perspectives on teacher preparation and classroom practices. Springer.

Cruzado-Guerrero, J. R., & Martínez-Alba, G. (2022). Supporting elementary-age ELs with limited or interrupted formal education: Literacy events for families using wordless books. In L. J. Pentón Herrera (Ed.), English and students with limited or interrupted formal education: Global perspectives on teacher preparation and classroom practices. Springer.

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Providing social-emotional and academic supports to SLIFE: What every teacher needs to know

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https://doi.org/10.55593/ej.26103a16 Luis Javier Pentón Herrera University of Warsaw, Poland Brenda Custodio Ohio State University, USA Judith O'Loughlin Language Matters Education Consultants, LLC Recent trends of migration have contributed to the growing number of Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education (SLIFE) in our K-12 classrooms in the United States and worldwide.

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Addressing the Needs of Students with Limited and Interrupted Formal Education.

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Addressing the Needs of Students with Limited and Interrupted Formal Education.

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This year, I'm in a new position as the Director of English Language Learners for my school. Part of this role involves leading a team of teachers who serve students with limited and interrupted formal education. These students are newcomers to the United States, coming from places where schooling was either inaccessible or non-compulsory, and therefore they've had little exposure to academic language and literacy in their native languages.

In educational terms, these students are referred to as Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education (SLIFE). Our program organizes SLIFE education into two groups - Spanish and multilingual. A majority of our Spanish speaking students come from the Dominican Republic, while our multilingual students have a range of first languages including Somali, Haitian, Cape Verdean Creole, Tigrinya, and Vietnamese. The SLIFE classes are substantially separate settings, with small class sizes and intense support (2 teachers to 15 students). Our team of educators is responsible for teaching content area material, as well providing English language instruction and supporting native language literacy. However, academic teaching is not enough.

We are also responsible for responding to and advocating for services for individualized needs of each child in the SLIFE classrooms. This year, we have students struggling with homelessness, sensory processing problems, hearing impairments, oppositional defiant disorder, and in a majority of cases, the effects of trauma as well.

Despite these challenges, our team is determined to ensure that these students have a strong sense of belonging in our school community, and to foster a belief in our students that school is a pathway to success. When our principal requested that I develop a plan as part of a school-wide data improvement initiative, I chose to focus our team on three key areas aligned with school goals to meet student needs: attendance, social emotional/executive functioning, and high quality academic work.

Our team monitors student attendance carefully and addresses absences immediately; academic failure and dropout rates for SLIFE students are incredibly high. We work closely with our Family Engagement Coordinator to ensure that both students and parents understand the importance of regular attendance, a primer step for staying in school. Our work in this area includes home visits and listening conferences. Both of these practices help our team to strengthen relationships with our families through better understanding their journeys and their immediate needs.

On a recent home visit to the home of one of our SLIFE students, we learned that the family had lived in a shelter for four years and had only recently obtained more permanent housing, albeit without proper heating for the Boston winter. At listening conferences, a parent is interviewed by one member of our team while others are charged with note taking and coming up with clarifying questions. Through these conferences, we learned that one of our 8th grade students is living with her mother for the first time in 12 years, and another student with slow speech development is being treated for a punctured eardrum, and has a history of early childhood ear infections.

Having this type of specific background knowledge about our students allows our team to advocate for and provide services that are better focused on students' specific needs. As families trust that our school is a supportive and nurturing place for their child and that our team has their best interests in mind, they will work harder to ensure that their children attend regularly and be more responsive to inquiries about absences.

Explicit instruction in social-emotional skills ensures that our students are learning how to self-regulate behavior, and use problem-solving skills when faced with social dilemmas. This year, during our team's professional development meetings, I am co-facilitating adaptation of lessons from the Zones of Regulation book for beginning English language learners. We have found that many connections exist between social-emotional skills and content area curriculum. This week, for example, through a lesson about calming tools, our team examined how deep breathing practice can reduce muscle tension and increase oxygen to the bloodstream. This provided a connection to a current science unit on human body systems.

While our students are coping with significant personal challenges, our team must still ensure that students gain academic skills that will help them succeed in a larger classroom setting. My responsibility is to provide 1:1 coaching sessions for teachers to support in planning of cognitively demanding end-of-unit tasks in each content area. During these sessions, we review grade-level district curricula, alongside Common Core standards for primary grades, and grade-level language skills from the WIDA Can Do descriptors . In many cases we design developmentally appropriate tasks that support students in meeting standards for lower grades. While this would not be appropriate for English language learners who have had regular schooling, it is important for our SLIFE students who are still trying to acquire foundational math and literacy skills to which they have not yet been exposed. For example, an end-of-unit task on the topic of geometry requires students to create models for a set of geometric shapes, count their sides and vertices, and measure their perimeter. While this is essentially a 3rd grade task according to Common Core standards, it presents significant challenges for our SLIFE students in terms of language comprehension and expression, and fine motor skills. Most of these concepts and tasks are unfamiliar to middle school students who have had limited schooling, and they need plenty of practice and repetition to master this kind of work.

My current position is the most difficult I've had in my entire career. It seems that there could never be enough time, money, or resources to support the needs of our students in preparing for college and career. However, when I return to the National Board's 5 Core Propositions , I am reminded of the capital our team does have - a team of teachers who are committed to students and their learning, who engage in deep reflective practice, and who are members of professional learning communities.

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Addressing the Needs of Students with Limited and Interrupted Formal Education

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This year, I'm in a new position as the Director of English Language Learners for my school. Part of this role involves leading a team of teachers who serve students with limited and interrupted formal education.

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At the beginning of the school year, I always encourage folks to prep a ton of these in anticipation of newcomer students that will arrive throughout the school year. Please note that this is one example of a template. You can open the templates, go to FILE and MAKE A COPY so that you can customize these to better fit your needs! This sample template I have ready is for English/Spanish newcomers.

**I recently (9/10/23) used AI and digital translation resources after a request came through for these cards in Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, Portuguese and Mongolian. As of 10/8/23, I also have French and Korean. I do not have these language skills or access to a translator- so this was my attempt. There are notes that indicate this on each of these resources, but I wanted to be sure to mention it here as well. If you have edits, I'd be happy to adjust these right away - email me at carlymspina@gmail.com.**

Please note that our newcomer students MAY NEED REST and breaks! This is important. If you have a colleague who may be reluctant about providing students with rest breaks, please remind them of the importance of providing a safe learning environment that prioritizes basic needs first.

On page 1, you'd print the whole thing and tape it or post it on the inside of a notebook or folder. This offers older students a more "discrete" support so that they may open up their folder and point to the row they need for whichever teacher they are with.

On page 2, you'd print and cut each strip. In the left column, you'd punch a hole. You'd place each strip on a ring so students can flip through to find their needs & communicate their needs.

On page 3, you'd print and cut each need (or perhaps 2 at a time). You'd put these on student desks and cover these with contact paper. This is best for our youngest learners so that they don't have to worry about finding their tool. All they'd need to do is raise their hand and point.

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"I Need" Cards: Printables for Newcomers

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At the beginning of the school year, I always encourage folks to prep a ton of these in anticipation of newcomer students that will arrive t...

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Support USAHello | Organization Helping Immigrants in the US

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USAHello is a non-profit offering free multilingual information and classes to immigrants and refugees. Learn how to support our efforts.

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Engaging the families of English learners in classrooms, schools, and communities

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Engaging the families of English learners in classrooms, schools, and communities

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TESOL Press

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Adjusting to Life & Work in the U.S. - Perspectives from Refugee Youth

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Adjusting to Life & Work in the U.S. - Perspectives from Refugee Youth

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Adjusting to Life & Work in the U.S. - Perspectives from Refugee Youth

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‘Happier families, happier students’: How Denver’s community hubs are helping migrants

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As more than 3,500 migrant students have enrolled in Denver Public Schools since the beginning of the school year, the hubs are increasingly serving their families as they build new lives in Denver.

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Toward Comprehensive Effective Literacy Policy and Instruction for English Learner/Emergent Bilingual Students

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Toward Comprehensive Effective Literacy Policy and Instruction for English Learner/Emergent Bilingual Students

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In the Country We Love: My Family Divided

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In the Country We Love: My Family Divided

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Diane Guerrero, 2016

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The star of Orange is the New Black and Jane the Virgin presents her personal story of the real plight of undocumented immigrants in this country
Diane Guerrero, the television actress from the megahit Orange is the New Black and Jane the Virgin, was just fourteen years old on the day her parents were detained and deported while she was at school. Born in the U.S., Guerrero was able to remain in the country and continue her education, depending on the kindness of family friends who took her in and helped her build a life and a successful acting career for herself, without the support system of her family.

In the Country We Love is a moving, heartbreaking story of one woman's extraordinary resilience in the face of the nightmarish struggles of undocumented residents in this country. There are over 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the US, many of whom have citizen children, whose lives here are just as precarious, and whose stories haven't been told. Written with bestselling author Michelle Burford, this memoir is a tale of personal triumph that also casts a much-needed light on the fears that haunt the daily existence of families likes the author's and on a system that fails them over and over.

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The Silver Key

Every doorway, every intersection has a story.
-Katherine Dunn, novelist

Spring 2001-in the Roxbury section of Boston

My mom was making me late-and I hated to be late. Especially for a...

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Praise for In the Country We Love

One of Chicago Public Library's and BookRiot's Best Books of 2016
"Guerrero, 14 at the time, was left on her own with no government oversight whatsoever, a harrowing situation that she recounts with honesty, pathos, and bravery...Guerrero transforms a truly terrible situation into something meaningful, using her story and her role as an Ambassador for Citizenship and Naturalization by the White House to try to help other immigrant families left in this terrible position." -Publishers Weekly

"Orange Is the New Black actress Guerrero delivers an affecting tale of a childhood lived in the margins. . . . lovingly detailed in colloquial and well-paced prose . . . The author's candor in chronicling the lowest moments of her life reads like an urgent confessional. . . The author's greatest strength lies in her ability to advocate for undocumented immigrants and others affected by immigration status: 'I've written the book that I wish I could have read when I was that girl.' A moving, humanizing portrait of the collateral damage caused by America's immigration policy." -Kirkus Reviews

"Guerrero relates her struggle to hold her life together, get through high school and college, and find her feet in the world--challenges that will resonate with many readers...[She] writes with humor and heartbreaking honesty. Offering readers the story she needed to hear as a child, Guerrero shines a light on this country's flawed immigration system, eloquently calling f... More...

One of Chicago Public Library's and BookRiot's Best Books of 2016
"Guerrero, 14 at the time, was left on her own with no government oversight whatsoever, a harrowing situation that she recounts with honesty, pathos, and bravery...Guerrero transforms a truly terrible situation into something meaningful, using her story and her role as an Ambassador for Citizenship and Naturalization by the White House to try to help other immigrant families left in this terrible position." -Publishers Weekly

"Orange Is the New Black actress Guerrero delivers an affecting tale of a childhood lived in the margins. . . . lovingly detailed in colloquial and well-paced prose . . . The author's candor in chronicling the lowest moments of her life reads like an urgent confessional. . . The author's greatest strength lies in her ability to advocate for undocumented immigrants and others affected by immigration status: 'I've written the book that I wish I could have read when I was that girl.' A moving, humanizing portrait of the collateral damage caused by America's immigration policy." -Kirkus Reviews

"Guerrero relates her struggle to hold her life together, get through high school and college, and find her feet in the world--challenges that will resonate with many readers...[She] writes with humor and heartbreaking honesty. Offering readers the story she needed to hear as a child, Guerrero shines a light on this country's flawed immigration system, eloquently calling for reform without diminishing her appreciation for the opportunities US citizenship has afforded her. A timely and enlightening read."-Booklist

" In the Country We Love is the poignant, candid, and often shocking account of the challenges Guerrero faced as a citizen child of undocumented parents"-Kirkus Reviews [special cover feature]

"I think putting your life down on paper as honest and raw as Diane Guerrero has done is brave..., Guerrero bares her life showing her faults, her heart, her humor, that the saying kids are resilient is not so, and most importantly her fight to thrive and succeed. I could not recommend this book enough, especially if you liked The Book of Unknown Americans." -Book Riot [best books of April 2016]

" In the Country We Love is a necessary story for our times...It is a heartrending memoir that humanizes the story of America's immigration policies and helps us all find a way to understand the challenging questions and ineffective strategies of current policies and practices." -San Antonio News-Express

"Advocating on behalf of the undocumented immigrants in our country, Guerrero's memoir is a well-written tell-all of a woman who traveled a difficult path to stardom." -ReadItForward.com

- Less...

Reviews from Goodreads

Diane Guerrero with Michelle Burford

Diane Guerrero is an actress on the hit shows Orange is the New Black and Jane the Virgin. She volunteers with the nonprofit Immigrant Legal Resource Center, as well as with Mi Familia Vota, an organization that promotes civic involvement. She has been named an Ambassador for Citizenship and Naturalization by the White House. She lives in New York City.

Michelle Burford is a founding editor of O, The Oprah Magazine and writer of many best-selling books including memoirs by Olympic gymnast Gabby Douglas, singer Toni Braxton, and Cleveland kidnap survivor Michelle Knight.

Marcus Branch

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$28.00

Henry Holt and Co.

Henry Holt and Co.

ISBN: 9781627795272
272 Pages

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Reviews

One of Chicago Public Library's and BookRiot's Best Books of 2016
"Guerrero, 14 at the time, was left on her own with no government oversight whatsoever, a harrowing situation that she recounts with honesty, pathos, and bravery...Guerrero transforms a truly terrible situation into something meaningful, using her story and her role as an Ambassador for Citizenship and Naturalization by the White House to try to help other immigrant families left in this terrible position." -Publishers Weekly

"Orange Is the New Black actress Guerrero delivers an affecting tale of a childhood lived in the margins. . . . lovingly detailed in colloquial and well-paced prose . . . The author's candor in chronicling the lowest moments of her life reads like an urgent confessional. . . The author's greatest strength lies in her ability to advocate for undocumented immigrants and others affected by immigration status: 'I've written the book that I wish I could have read when I was that girl.' A moving, humanizing portrait of the collateral damage caused by America's immigration policy." -Kirkus Reviews

"Guerrero relates her struggle to hold her life together, get through high school and college, and find her feet in the world--challenges that will resonate with many readers...[She] writes with humor and heartbreaking honesty. Offering readers the story she needed to hear as a child, Guerrero shines a light on this country's flawed immigration system, eloquently calling f... More...

One of Chicago Public Library's and BookRiot's Best Books of 2016
"Guerrero, 14 at the time, was left on her own with no government oversight whatsoever, a harrowing situation that she recounts with honesty, pathos, and bravery...Guerrero transforms a truly terrible situation into something meaningful, using her story and her role as an Ambassador for Citizenship and Naturalization by the White House to try to help other immigrant families left in this terrible position." -Publishers Weekly

"Orange Is the New Black actress Guerrero delivers an affecting tale of a childhood lived in the margins. . . . lovingly detailed in colloquial and well-paced prose . . . The author's candor in chronicling the lowest moments of her life reads like an urgent confessional. . . The author's greatest strength lies in her ability to advocate for undocumented immigrants and others affected by immigration status: 'I've written the book that I wish I could have read when I was that girl.' A moving, humanizing portrait of the collateral damage caused by America's immigration policy." -Kirkus Reviews

"Guerrero relates her struggle to hold her life together, get through high school and college, and find her feet in the world--challenges that will resonate with many readers...[She] writes with humor and heartbreaking honesty. Offering readers the story she needed to hear as a child, Guerrero shines a light on this country's flawed immigration system, eloquently calling for reform without diminishing her appreciation for the opportunities US citizenship has afforded her. A timely and enlightening read."-Booklist

" In the Country We Love is the poignant, candid, and often shocking account of the challenges Guerrero faced as a citizen child of undocumented parents"-Kirkus Reviews [special cover feature]

"I think putting your life down on paper as honest and raw as Diane Guerrero has done is brave..., Guerrero bares her life showing her faults, her heart, her humor, that the saying kids are resilient is not so, and most importantly her fight to thrive and succeed. I could not recommend this book enough, especially if you liked The Book of Unknown Americans." -Book Riot [best books of April 2016]

" In the Country We Love is a necessary story for our times...It is a heartrending memoir that humanizes the story of America's immigration policies and helps us all find a way to understand the challenging questions and ineffective strategies of current policies and practices." -San Antonio News-Express

"Advocating on behalf of the undocumented immigrants in our country, Guerrero's memoir is a well-written tell-all of a woman who traveled a difficult path to stardom." -ReadItForward.com

- Less...

Marcus Branch

Related Links

Reading Guide

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In the Country We Love | Diane Guerrero | Macmillan

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g The star of Orange is the New Black and Jane the Virgin presents her personal story of the real plight of undocumented immigrants in this country Diane Guerrero, the television actress from the megahit Orange is the New Black and Jane the Virgin, was just fourteen years old on the day her parents were detained and deported while she was at school.

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Enter the Code to Join & Vote on a Presentation - Mentimeter

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Enter the code from the Mentimeter presentation to join in and start voting. Make your voice heard!

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Please select a country in the dropdown menu below to see the values for the 6 dimensions. After a first country has been selected, a second and even a third country can be chosen to be able to see a comparison of their scores.

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Talk Moves with Sentence Stems and Frames

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Talk Moves with Sentence Stems and Frames

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Sample Focused Listening and Nonverbal Communication Peer and Self-Assessment

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Sample Focused Listening and Nonverbal Communication Peer and Self-Assessment

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Zwiers & Hamerla, 2018

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Potential Roles for Teaching Academic Conversations

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Potential Roles for Teaching Academic Conversations

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Module Three Teacher Tip

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Framework for Teaching Communication Skills

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Framework for Teaching Communication Skills

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A framework for exploring with students what good communication looks like and for helping them develop the necessary skills.

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Hammond, 2015, p. 27

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Strategy Overview

How This Strategy Supports Language Development

Engineering or amplifying texts provides in-text support so that students can read grade-level text that would otherwise be beyond their reading comprehension level. These embedded text supports can include chunking the text, adding labeled visuals, inserting synonyms after academic terms, and adding headings or guiding questions for each chunk.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Chunk an original text into shorter sections (one to two paragraphs/ chunk).

2. Add a guiding question or heading with the main idea above each chunk.

3. Add synonyms in parentheses next to transferable academic words.

4. Add images with captions associated with key ideas.

5. Add translated words or cognates for key words.

Lessons Learned

When possible, engineer texts on a slide. This makes inserting headings, images with captions, and synonyms easier.

Since engineering a text takes time, carefully choose essential passages from a text for this process. Engineering a multiple page article or chapter from a novel is not practical in most cases.

Teach students to read the synonyms in the parentheses.

Give students practice reading engineered texts before presenting this version of a text on an assessment.

Work with a small group of students who would benefit from guided reading of an engineered text.

Differentiation

Entering/Emerging

Engineer a text at the student's reading level.

Read the text aloud or make a voice recording of the text.

For students who are literate in their heritage language, add translations of transferable academic words.

Developing

For challenging or complex sentences, offer a summarization of that sentence in parentheses.

For students who are literate in their heritage language, add translations of transferable academic words.

Expanding

Engineer only the most complex sentences.

Add headings to longer sections of text.

Co-Teaching Considerations

Content or Grade-Level Teacher

1. Choose the grade-level text for the class.

2. Identify the key passages or paragraphs.

English Language Development Teacher

1. Engineer essential paragraphs for the multilingual learners in the class.

2. Walk your teaching partner through the process so that they can use this strategy independently as well.

Examples

The following slide shows an example of text chunking and engineering that includes:
Text source: Plants in Acadia National Park

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Strategy OverviewHow This Strategy Supports Language DevelopmentEngineering or amplifying texts provides in-text support so that students can read grade-level text that would otherwise be beyond their reading comprehension level.

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00:34:35	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***For today’s session, you will need: 
•        Google Folder Resources: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1cTPXfMLMjPreFJ0Q9bjduIKtNv9c4nwi 
•        Series Padlet: https://padlet.com/diane30/osse-supporting-students-with-limited-or-interrupted-formal--i65l7kkmh8a0tab4 
•        An upcoming unit plan
•        Access to a class list with SLIFE students identified ***
00:35:11	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	*** Follow Meghan Gregoire-Smith on Bluesky @MeghanSupportEd. Share something you learned from today’s session. ***
00:35:47	Francesca Smith:	Francesca.smith@dc.gov --> I'm the multilingual specialist at OSSE, please reach out with any logistical questions around getting your PLUs, follow-up support/PD, or anything of that nature!
00:35:58	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Follow Deena Marshall on LinkedIn @DeenaMarshall22. Share something you learned from today’s session. ***
00:37:18	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***For today’s session, you will need: 
•        Google Folder Resources: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1cTPXfMLMjPreFJ0Q9bjduIKtNv9c4nwi 
•        Series Padlet: https://padlet.com/diane30/osse-supporting-students-with-limited-or-interrupted-formal--i65l7kkmh8a0tab4 
•        An upcoming unit plan
•        Access to a class list with SLIFE students identified ***
00:37:40	Shirley Sepulveda:	Reacted to "Francesca.smith@dc.g..." with 💜
00:38:19	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Access the padlet of resources here: https://padlet.com/diane30/osse-supporting-students-with-limited-or-interrupted-formal--i65l7kkmh8a0tab4 ***
00:40:11	Holly Heller-Schwartz:	Be right back!
00:40:17	Deena Marshall (SupportEd):	Reacted to "Be right back!" with 👍🏼
00:41:10	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Access the agenda for today’s session in Document 1 in the Google folder here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lPLU5kd3k5nXlLaMQ6pB3K90d2P-g8_Ji5z3UWijQq0/edit?usp=drive_link ***
00:42:32	thakiya.ismael:	Good Morning everyone
00:43:03	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***In the chat, share:
•       Your role
•       Something you hope to take away from this session ***
00:43:10	Maria Molina:	I
00:43:42	Webecca Wilner:	Hi! I'm Rebecca Wilner. I hope to learn more about how to effectively support teachers as they welcome SLIFE into their classes.
00:43:43	Sandra.Garcia-Pinill:	Hello everyone!! My name is Sandra Garcia. I am Spanish/ESL Teacher at Columbia Heights EC
00:43:47	JVS:	Jacqueline Vialpando Instructional Coach
00:43:48	alejandro.gomez:	I'd like to help my SLIFE student learn how to read...he's in third grade
00:43:54	Libby Nutting:	Dual Language History (9th and 10th grades) at CHEC, hoping to better support my students
00:43:55	Jess R:	Jess Resnik, 6th Grade ELL/ELA teacher, working mostly with newcomers, many of whom are SLIFE. Would love ways to support students in accessing gen ed content and new ways to modify material
00:44:00	Maria Molina:	I’m Maria Molina, ML teacher at GPS STAY, co-teaching in English 1 and 4. I’d like to get strategies on how to work with our SLIFE students
00:44:00	Marlena.Mitchell:	Marlena Mitchell, Dunbar High School, Director of international academy. I hope to gain instructional strategies and SEL supports for newcomer students
00:44:01	Jestine Mayberry:	Hi! I’m Dr. Mayberry, CAO at MMBDA. I hope to gain information to share with teachers during a future PLC.
00:44:04	Debby Maatta:	Good Morning!  I am Debby Maatta, I am the grades 3-5 newcomer ML teacher at Brightwood Elementary.  I hope to gain strategies for teaching literacy to SLIFE students.
00:44:08	Valentina Maza:	Hi! I’m a ESL high school teacher. I hope to gain scaffolding strategies to better support my sheltered classes.
00:44:09	Ashley Gutierrez:	Hello! My name is Ashley Gutierrez. I’m an EL teacher at AppleTree in Columbia Heights/Spring Valley. I’m excited to learn new strategies and share with teachers.
00:44:09	Mr. Donnell:	Good Morning, my name is Mr. Donnell and I am the Special Services Coordinator for EW Stokes East End Campus.  This is my second year coordinating EL services and I would like to take away strategies for supporting teachers in meeting the needs of SLIFE students.
00:44:14	thakiya.ismael:	Hi I'm Thakiya Ismael and teach ELA 7th grade at Columbia Heights Educational Campus
00:44:18	Stephanie Dugan:	Good morning! I'm a 5th grade ELA teacher at Bancroft ES. I'm hoping to learn strategies to support my SLIFE students!
00:44:26	Sandra.Garcia-Pinill:	I want to learn specific strategies to support SLIFE students
00:44:26	M Leonor:	Michelle Leonor, DL Social Studies at MacFarland, hoping to learn how to better support and provide access to SLIFE students in content area courses.
00:44:28	Sarah White- DC Public Schools:	Hi, I'm Sarah, and instructional coach at Bancroft ES. I hope to help my teachers help transition students to our bilingual school
00:44:32	Brian Swift:	Hey! I'm an ESOL teacher at Eastern. I hope to take away strategies to support my SLIFE students who are struggling with literacy.
00:44:34	Everett Richardson:	Everett Richardson, I am the Dir. of Special services. How to support our staff support our students.
00:44:36	angelica.carranza:	Hi! I'm Angelica Carranza, MLL Teacher at Eastern High School. I hope to learn how to support my SLIFE students.
00:44:39	Megan Belser:	Good morning, My name is Megan Belser, I am a 9th Grade ELA teacher at CHEC. I am hoping to learn more effective ways at scaffolding content for my SLIFE students. Also wondering whether to focus on L1 literacy before building L2 literacy in the high school years?!
00:44:40	Jorge Linero:	HI! I'm Jorge Linero. ELA 9th grade teacher at CHEC. I hope to learn strategies that could be incorporated into my lessons.
00:44:43	Mason Bosley:	Mason Bosley, 4th grade learning specialist; I'm hoping to learn how to best provide literacy instruction to SLIFE students.
00:44:43	jairo.agudelo:	I am Jairo Agudelo from CHEC 6th grade Social studies. looking for experience and strategies to welcome students into a new envirmojnmnet
00:44:44	Jonah Davenport:	Jonah - Pre-K Coordinator and Learning Specialist at Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School.  I'm looking for any tips on how to support new students, especially ELL scholars.
00:44:46	Keila Gutierrez:	Hi! My name is Keila, learning specialist. I would like to take away strategies to support students.
00:44:48	Brendolyn.Daniels:	Hi! I'm Brendolyn, an elementary ELL teacher.  I hope to learn how to better support my students who have experienced an interurupted education in ELA and math
00:44:49	Joseph:	Joseph -ELL teacher at LAMB PCS.  Looking how to modify classroom material and maintaining better relationships
00:44:54	Eugenia Reyes:	Good morning, Eugenia Reyes ELL Elementary in a Montessori school setting.
00:44:54	thakiya.ismael:	I hope to improve hmy scaffolding strategies
00:44:54	heidi.sterling:	I'm Heidi Sterling, a SIFE and MLL teacher at Roosevelt High School. I hope to learn more strategies to build literacy skills for SIFE in general education settings.
00:45:01	Mrs. Seppa:	Hi! I'm Lupita Seppa! I am the ELL Coordinator at TCGDC. I hope to learn how to support our ELL students and their teachers.
00:45:01	JVS:	As an Instructional Coach working with new and experienced teachers, I am hoping to balance the school demands and testing demands for ESL students who can not read or calculate.  I work 6-12 levels.
00:45:04	holly cobb:	Good morning! I am a ELL Teacher at Garnett-Patterson STAY. I am hoping to learn strategies to support SLIFE students in history content courses.
00:45:07	Shirley Sepulveda:	Shirley Sepulveda, ESOL POC and Reading and Writing Interventionist, also the only ESOL teacher at my school. 
I hope to get more blueprint ideas into how to support my students and provide them with equitable opportunities to close their academic gaps.
00:45:07	Alea Rubin:	I’m Alea Rubin. Biology teacher at Roosevelt HS teaching sheltered newcomers. I hope to gain some strategies for increasing access to content while building literacy for my high school SLIFE students
00:45:08	jazzae.puyol:	Good Morning, I am an English Learner/Sped Teacher at AppleTree. I hope to gain new strategies to use and also provide general education teachers.
00:45:09	Jhorman Cantillo:	Good morning, everyone!
I'm Jhorman Cantillo. I'm a ESL Math teacher and ML Department Chair. Learn how to support MLs and serve them in a better way.
00:45:12	Nathaly Jordan:	Hello everyone I am a HS ESL teacher and I hope to learn more about strategies to support my students.
00:45:25	holly cobb:	Reacted to "Good morning, everyo..." with ❤️
00:45:32	Sarah White- DC Public Schools:	Reacted to "Hi! I'm Lupita Seppa..." with ❤️
00:45:39	Maria Molina:	Reacted to "Good morning! I am a..." with ❤️
00:45:42	Tara Williams:	Good morning Everyone! I am an EL Teacher for AppleTree. I want to learn new strategies.
00:45:46	Maria Molina:	Reacted to "Good morning, everyo..." with ❤️
00:45:47	Christina M.:	Hi, I’m CHRISTINA MORADO - AP at Garnet Patterson STAY, one of the DCPS Opportunity Academies (older secondary students); I support the ML and Humanities teams.  I hope to have a deeper understanding of programming, interventions, knowledge of students who are also SIFE.
00:45:51	Jhorman Cantillo:	Reacted to "Good morning! I am a..." with ❤️
00:45:52	Maria Molina:	Reacted to "Hi, I’m CHRISTINA MO..." with ❤️
00:46:00	holly cobb:	Reacted to "Hi, I’m CHRISTINA MO..." with ❤️
00:46:24	Jhorman Cantillo:	Reacted to "Hi, I’m CHRISTINA MO..." with ❤️
00:46:33	Sara Gutiérrez:	Sara Gutiérrez, I’m an ESL teacher and support the ELA department. I hope to learn more strategies to better support my students.
00:47:27	Holly Heller-Schwartz:	Holly Heller-Schwartz, Special Services Coordinator. I hope to learn how to best support learning specialists and teachers in working with EL students, as well as more about what I need to prepare for ACCSESS testing
00:47:43	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***How do you define SLIFE students? ***
00:48:16	Jonah Davenport:	Nearly all of my incoming 3yo students have limited formal education.  But some have none.
00:48:21	angelica.carranza:	A student that has not been enrolled in formal education settings for a certain period of time.
00:48:24	JVS:	SLIFE--Student who is unable to write or read proficiently in any language.  However, if had to survive alone can fish and is self sufficient.
00:48:29	Brian Swift:	Students who have not been attending a school for an extended period of time.
00:48:35	jairo.agudelo:	new commers with language limitations
00:48:40	Megan Belser:	Students whose 'in school, formal education' has been inconsistent or nonexistent
00:48:41	Marlena.Mitchell:	Students who missed formal school fora period of time
00:48:50	Libby Nutting:	A student who have not completed all prior years of school
00:48:51	Maria Molina:	Students who haven’t been able to complete some or most of their schooling that has affected their proficiency in academic settings.
00:48:51	Mr. Donnell:	A student who may be new to the US whose English is emergent or extremely limited.
00:48:51	Ashley Gutierrez:	An EL who has interrupted learning while moving to a new country
00:48:54	thakiya.ismael:	A SLIFE student is one who has not had a consistent formal education.
00:48:59	Debby Maatta:	Students who have experienced an interruption in their formal education or have had limited educational experiences
00:49:00	alejandro.gomez:	A SLIFE student is one who has had interrupted or no education for a time that has impacted their education
00:49:01	heidi.sterling:	Students (usually older than elementary age) who have missed years of education and thus missed out on the opportunity to build foundational academic and literacy skills.
00:49:05	Eugenia Reyes:	Students who are low in literacy due to lack of access to education in their native language.
00:49:07	Webecca Wilner:	Students who have either never had the opportunity to attend school or students who have been enrolled in multiple different schools in different areas, and as a result may have gaps in their learning.
00:49:13	Everett Richardson:	an EL who has limited education over all
00:49:21	Sarah White- DC Public Schools:	Some of our students come to us with caregivers who are unsure of the students formal education background
00:49:25	holly cobb:	Students who have experienced interruptions in their formal schooling.
00:49:32	Jorge Linero:	Students with significant literacy gaps.
00:49:35	Christina M.:	Some time (2+ years) out of school - minimal attendance of school in a year (like only going a couple months multiple years in a row) and also, I think that limited schooling - schools where programming is 4 hours but 2 of those hours are recess/ lunch.
00:49:36	Jestine Mayberry:	Reacted to "Some of our students..." with 👍
00:49:41	Alea Rubin:	Students who have been out of formal school for some time. Gaps in some foundational literacy skills
00:49:43	Jess R:	Gaps in formal education/school attendance, leading to low literacy but also limited understanding of the structure of formal schooling
00:49:50	Tara Williams:	Students with interrupted school learning.
00:49:58	jairo.agudelo:	studenst without any school interaction getting in middle school
00:49:59	Holly Heller-Schwartz:	Would this include students who struggle with sicknesses, so miss school or only having to do with language acquisition?
00:52:48	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Access this resource on the padlet under the column, Characteristics of SLIFE https://padlet.com/diane30/osse-supporting-students-with-limited-or-interrupted-formal--i65l7kkmh8a0tab4 ***
00:54:42	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Visit menti.com and enter code 2442 2529. Or visit https://www.menti.com/alc2dtmdpdyo 
Share the strengths that SLIFE students can bring to school and classrooms. ***
00:58:32	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Access this resource on the padlet under the column, Characteristics of SLIFE https://padlet.com/diane30/osse-supporting-students-with-limited-or-interrupted-formal--i65l7kkmh8a0tab4 ***
01:01:31	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Access this resource on the padlet under the column, Characteristics of SLIFE https://padlet.com/diane30/osse-supporting-students-with-limited-or-interrupted-formal--i65l7kkmh8a0tab4 ***
01:05:18	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Access this resource on the Padlet: https://padlet.com/diane30/osse-supporting-students-with-limited-or-interrupted-formal--i65l7kkmh8a0tab4 ***
01:06:04	Christina M.:	Can you identify the law that dictates that it’s illegal - this is for a larger school presentation we are putting together for the faculty
01:06:34	Shirley Sepulveda:	Reacted to "Can you identify the..." with 💜
01:06:44	holly cobb:	Reacted to "Can you identify the..." with 👍
01:06:45	Christina M.:	👍🏾
01:07:44	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Access this resource on the Padlet: https://padlet.com/diane30/osse-supporting-students-with-limited-or-interrupted-formal--i65l7kkmh8a0tab4 ***
01:07:49	thakiya.ismael:	Its a federal law, Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act FERPA
01:08:30	Deena Marshall (SupportEd):	Here is more information from the ACLU: FAQ For Educators on Immigrant Students in Public Schools | American Civil Liberties Union
01:08:52	Brian Swift:	Reacted to "Here is more infor..." with 👍
01:08:59	Deena Marshall (SupportEd):	Replying to "Can you identify the..."

I just shared a resource below from the ACLU.  Thanks for this question!
01:09:04	Deena Marshall (SupportEd):	Reacted to "Its a federal law, F..." with 👍🏼
01:09:36	Deena Marshall (SupportEd):	Replying to "Can you identify the..."

FAQ For Educators on Immigrant Students in Public Schools | American Civil Liberties Union
01:10:30	Jess R:	I'm seeing several countries aren't listed
01:10:59	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Access Document 2 in the Google folder here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1g29iiGAH88BQF4FDNFa-YGR9Dz8TrskdtHSKBhriQW4/edit?usp=drive_link 
Read the scenario about Joseph and Ms. Frank independently. Consider the following:
o   What did Ms. Frank do to support Joseph in his new school? 
o   What are your takeaways from this scenario?
o   What else might Ms. Frank do to support Joseph in transitioning to his new school? ***
01:15:24	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	*** Meet in breakout rooms. Introduce yourself. Select a recorder and reporter. Discuss your takeaways from the scenario. Record your notes on your group’s slide (recorder). Be prepared to share key takeaways with the large group (reporter). ***
01:40:06	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Access this resource on the padlet under the column, Framework for the Effective Instruction of SLIFE https://padlet.com/diane30/osse-supporting-students-with-limited-or-interrupted-formal--i65l7kkmh8a0tab4 ***
01:41:42	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Access the direct link to the MALP Framework on the Padlet here: https://padlet.com/diane30/osse-supporting-students-with-limited-or-interrupted-formal--i65l7kkmh8a0tab4/wish/goElQynv45qvZ3yY ***
01:43:01	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Access Document 3 in the Google folder here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1q35O0LR2Xx1Bxvutdm-p1KShA6XHppsQCuQLG8XzYbo/edit?usp=drive_link 
Review the MALP Overview and Teaching Planning Checklist (document 3). Consider what you notice or what stands out to you from the MALP Framework. ***
01:49:52	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Access Document 4 in the Google folder here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1IwbsaKEz3rPU7KPzQzu2lg2t5yZhlZ0p024d3_DRCxs/edit?usp=drive_link 
Meet in breakout rooms. Select a recorder and reporter. Discuss the MALP framework using the guiding questions. Record your notes on your group’s slide (recorder). Be prepared to share key takeaways with the large group (reporter). ***
02:02:01	Jess R:	I would also add expectations re technology
02:02:30	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	Reacted to "I would also add exp..." with 👍
02:02:39	Jess R:	What are students expected to be doing, what does worktime look like, etc
02:03:10	Deena Marshall (SupportEd):	Reacted to "What are students ex..." with 👍🏼
02:03:11	Deena Marshall (SupportEd):	Reacted to "I would also add exp..." with 👍
02:03:19	Megan Belser:	I have a student this year who is coming from a culture where the emphasis was on memorization. She is very surprised that teachers here ask her what she thinks
02:03:23	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	Reacted to "What are students ex..." with 👍🏼
02:03:34	Deena Marshall (SupportEd):	Reacted to "I have a student thi..." with 👍🏼
02:03:36	heidi.sterling:	Reacted to "I have a student thi..." with 👍
02:04:49	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	Reacted to "I have a student thi..." with 👍
02:05:38	Rebecca Wilner:	It's a great resource to share with content teachers who may not have much experience accommodating MLs in general
02:05:49	Deena Marshall (SupportEd):	Reacted to "It's a great resourc..." with 👍🏼
02:06:41	Shirley Sepulveda:	Is there Data to support this framework?
02:10:23	Deena Marshall (SupportEd):	Replying to "Is there Data to sup..."

Here is the MALP website: Mutually Adaptive Learning Paradigm®
02:10:40	Shirley Sepulveda:	Replying to "Is there Data to sup..."

Thank you
02:10:47	JVS:	THe MALP checklist can be used for all staff at pre service or faculty meetins or small learning communities so we can review our perspective and share in circles--if and when time allows--more importantly with the team or set of teacher who work with the slife student/s.
02:10:54	Deena Marshall (SupportEd):	Replying to "Is there Data to sup..."

You're welcome!
02:11:23	Christina M.:	Replying to "Can you identify the..."

Thank you - I also found mention of Immigration Reform and Control Act also naming that we cannot ask. Hadn’t thought about FERPA.
02:11:47	Jess R:	Should intensive literacy be in L1 and L2?
02:11:58	Deena Marshall (SupportEd):	Reacted to "Thank you - I also f..." with ❤️
02:12:05	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Back at 10:55***
02:26:23	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	*** What is one aspect of school culture or school routines that SLIFE students might not be familiar with if they haven’t been in a U.S. school before? ***
02:26:44	Shirley Sepulveda:	Going to the bathroom at specific times and walking in line
02:26:44	Valentina Maza:	So much testing!
02:26:49	Sandra.Garcia-Pinill:	Testing
02:26:54	Shirley Sepulveda:	Reacted to "So much testing!" with 👍🏼
02:26:58	Libby Nutting:	Changing classrooms every period instead of the teacher moving
02:26:59	Meghan Gregoire-Smith (SupportEd):	Reacted to "Changing classrooms ..." with 👍🏼
02:27:03	Yaqueline Clauss (She/her):	Student Centered Learning
02:27:04	gabriela.ramirez:	The lesson structure, the food
02:27:04	Brian Swift:	the lacks of breaks / recess - thinking about secondary education
02:27:06	Maria Silva:	technology
02:27:09	Shirley Sepulveda:	Reacted to "Changing classrooms ..." with 👍🏼
02:27:09	Stephanie Dugan:	Using computers/tech
02:27:11	Jhorman Cantillo:	Explain reasoning
02:27:14	Sandra.Garcia-Pinill:	Lack of recess
02:27:14	thakiya.ismael:	Follow classroom rules
02:27:22	Everett Richardson:	curriculum
02:27:24	Valentina Maza:	Ending school time
02:27:26	Kristin Adeduro:	Sitting still for 60-90 minutes
02:27:27	heidi.sterling:	My group spoke before about a teacher saying "Discuss this with your group" and students being unsure how to do that effectively.
02:27:35	Brian Swift:	8 hr school days
02:27:42	angelica.carranza:	Not being able to run during recess
02:27:53	thakiya.ismael:	No talking during class without permission
02:27:53	gabriela.ramirez:	The seriousness of absenteeism\
02:27:56	Yaqueline Clauss (She/her):	Flexibility and more autonomy
02:27:57	Jairo Evangelista Agudelo:	acces tomcafeteria at any time and with their own budgets food acces
02:27:58	Shirley Sepulveda:	how long the school year
02:28:05	Rebecca Wilner:	Doing homework
02:28:18	Megan Belser:	Reacted to "The seriousness of..." with ❤️
02:28:23	Yaqueline Clauss (She/her):	Passing classes easily
02:28:36	Everett Richardson:	Reacted to "Doing homework" with 👍🏿
02:28:46	Debby Maatta:	Our grading system
02:28:53	Nathaly Jordan:	Starting-ending time of school
02:28:55	Holly Heller-Schwartz:	taking a bus
02:28:59	Jairo Evangelista Agudelo:	accademic year alligned wit the calendar year
02:29:21	Yaqueline Clauss (She/her):	Holidays and school closures
02:29:27	Shirley Sepulveda:	The lock-down drill, above all of them
02:29:34	Yaqueline Clauss (She/her):	Protocols and routines
02:29:38	Rebecca Wilner:	Having to come to school no matter the weather (mostly)
02:29:54	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Access Document 5 in the Google folder here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1OlkP3J-sP7MRetMXgSplsrfDM2ZbKkg5evyzTs5IXN4/edit?usp=drive_link ***
02:30:26	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	*** Discuss the following questions. 
•        What are elements of the school culture that are visible?
•        What are the beliefs and values of the school culture that may not be easily observable?
•        How are the beliefs and values that are embedded in school culture manifested in expectations for students and teachers?
Add ideas to the Google Slide. Share ideas for supporting SLIFE students. ***
02:31:51	Mr. Donnell:	Parents may need help navigating the school processes including requesting support for the family and/or the students.
02:32:38	thakiya.ismael:	Merit Based System, Using test data
02:32:58	Jorge Linero:	Allowing flexibility, creativity and experimentation
02:33:19	Jhorman Cantillo:	Access to and use of technology
02:35:35	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Access these resources on the padlet here: https://padlet.com/diane30/osse-supporting-students-with-limited-or-interrupted-formal--i65l7kkmh8a0tab4 ***
02:44:21	Mr. Donnell:	how do I access this slide presentation?
02:44:52	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Access the Padlet here: Padlet: https://padlet.com/diane30/osse-supporting-students-with-limited-or-interrupted-formal--i65l7kkmh8a0tab4 
***
02:46:04	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Back at 12.15***
03:47:35	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Access Document 7 in the Google folder here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ltVL3g276ma72uaVSJYmEEHbJg1sr0NZwOcltgpX-iw/edit?usp=drive_link 
Meet in breakout rooms. Select a recorder to take notes and a reporter to share out with the group. Read the scenario. Find your group’s slide. Discuss the reflection questions and take notes (recorder). Be prepared to share key takeaways with the large group (reporter). ***
04:06:59	Shirley Sepulveda:	I love this analogy! *stealing it!!
04:08:43	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Access the direct link to this resource on the padlet here: https://padlet.com/diane30/osse-supporting-students-with-limited-or-interrupted-formal--i65l7kkmh8a0tab4/wish/LNV1Q7EEjGYjWmq3 ***
04:09:12	Libby Nutting:	What is an amplified text?
04:11:03	thakiya.ismael:	provide questions to assist with thinking about the content.
04:11:08	Meghan Gregoire-Smith (SupportEd):	Reacted to "provide questions to..." with 👍🏼
04:11:09	Deena Marshall (SupportEd):	Reacted to "provide questions to..." with 👍🏼
04:11:16	Meghan Gregoire-Smith (SupportEd):	Intentional use of wait time
04:11:41	Eugenia Reyes:	Use visuals to make connections
04:12:02	Rebecca Wilner:	Predictable routines and processes
04:12:36	Mr. Donnell:	Think alouds
04:13:04	Jhorman Cantillo:	Instructions based on the language level of the pupils.
04:14:20	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	*** In the chat, share: 
•       What considerations do you keep in mind when grouping SLIFE students?
•       What role does home language play? ***
04:15:01	Debby Maatta:	I try to make sure the group includes a speaker of the SLIFE student’s language so they are able to discuss content in the home language before moving to English.
04:15:02	Brian Swift:	language level
04:15:09	Sarah White- DC Public Schools:	we encourage teachers to become familiar with their WIDA levels
04:15:13	Mr. Donnell:	I consider pairing students by home language as well as English proficiency levels.
04:15:15	Jairo Evangelista Agudelo:	heterogenous groups that anable studenst to share diffeents points of view. of the theme or topic.
04:15:20	gabriela.ramirez:	Homogeneous grouping by prophecy
04:15:21	Sandra.Garcia-Pinill:	Heterogeneous groups so they can support each other in their language learning process.
04:15:21	Maria Molina:	I take into consideration their native language, language level, personality and likes
04:15:21	Rebecca Wilner:	I think a combination of different grouping strategies for different purposes/situations makes sense. Sometimes I group by level or by L1, sometimes I like to have a mix of levels or L1s to help scaffold Ss.
04:15:38	Megan Belser:	I try to group SLIFE students with at least one person I think they are comfortable with, a speaker that they can communicate with and then also a student who can model fluency of target language
04:15:47	Alea Rubin-Evens:	I tend to group SLIFE students together when working on a differentiated version of the material. When everyone is working on the same material (i.e. gallery walk with discussion) I pair SLIFE students with supportive peers with more literacy
04:16:19	Libby Nutting:	Dual language— teaching in Spanish. For heterogenous groups I try to mix up newcomers with strong Spanish academic skills, SLIFE students, and Spanish-language learners of different levels. SLIFE students can help push forward group discussions in Spanish bc of their strong oral Spanish skills
04:16:31	Tara Williams:	Pairing my home language,  proficiency level, interests,
04:16:33	thakiya.ismael:	Give everyone a job in the group
04:16:48	Shirley Sepulveda:	Depending on the topic. I actually enjoy allowing them the choice, at the beginning so I can see how they make choices and their preferences. Then I adjust
04:16:52	Jhorman Cantillo:	I consider the point at which learners are at with respect to the unit/lesson to be relevant for supporting learners with specific needs.
04:16:58	gabriela.ramirez:	Native language is used as a tool to complete ideas and to ask for the target language version of what they said. Translanguaging.
04:17:08	Meghan Gregoire-Smith (SupportEd):	Reacted to "Native language is u..." with ❤️
04:17:12	Rebecca Wilner:	Reacted to "Depending on the top..." with 👍
04:17:17	Meghan Gregoire-Smith (SupportEd):	Reacted to "Depending on the top..." with 👍
04:17:20	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Access Document 8 in the Google folder here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dvD87IbH712FKUj7O9e0alw_fD3IsqAu/view?usp=drive_link 
Review the Intentional Grouping Tool. Think about which types of groupings you use frequently, and which types of groupings you would like to try. Share your takeaways in the chat. ***
04:17:23	Sarah White- DC Public Schools:	Reacted to "Depending on the top..." with 👍
04:17:31	Mr. Donnell:	Gender preferences may be based upon cultural experiences.  Some SLIFE students may prefer to be paired/grouped with members of the same sex.
04:18:24	Deena Marshall (SupportEd):	Reacted to "Gender preferences m..." with 👍🏼
04:18:41	Deena Marshall (SupportEd):	Reacted to "Depending on the top..." with 👍
04:20:53	Rebecca Wilner:	There's not one best grouping strategy -- how you group students depends on the reason(s) students are working in groups in the first place, and what their objective or deliverable is for the end of their time in the group.
04:21:04	Deena Marshall (SupportEd):	Reacted to "There's not one best..." with 👍🏼
04:21:11	Meghan Gregoire-Smith (SupportEd):	Reacted to "There's not one best..." with 👍🏼
04:21:30	Rebecca Wilner:	I'd like to try to use more heterogeneous groups, in general. I find that if it's not very clearly structured, it can be ineffective.
04:21:30	Maria Silva:	Reacted to "There's not one best..." with ❤️
04:21:36	Debby Maatta:	Reacted to "There's not one best..." with 👍🏼
04:21:42	Jorge Linero:	Grouping should be done with a clear purpose in mind.
04:21:49	Christina M.:	Reacted to "Grouping should be d..." with 👍🏾
04:21:56	Christina M.:	Reacted to "I'd like to try to u..." with 👍🏾
04:21:58	holly cobb:	Reacted to "I'd like to try to u..." with 👍
04:21:59	Mr. Donnell:	I agree with Rebecca, groupings are based on instructional intent.  However, I find heterogenous grouping of mixed English language proficiency levels and English proficient students often helpful in leveraging the social capitol of all learners.
04:22:03	Deena Marshall (SupportEd):	Reacted to "Grouping should be d..." with 👍🏾
04:22:04	Christina M.:	Reacted to "There's not one best..." with 👍🏾
04:22:05	Deena Marshall (SupportEd):	Reacted to "I'd like to try to u..." with 👍
04:22:18	Megan Belser:	I struggle with heterogenous grouping and making sure everyone has a meaningful and academically appropriate task. My heterogenous groups often work toward SEL / class community goals.
04:22:28	Rebecca Wilner:	Reacted to "I struggle with hete..." with 👍
04:22:32	Sandra.Garcia-Pinill:	Students should be exposed to different types of grouping to be exposed to different levels
04:22:43	Shirley Sepulveda:	I believe this is a great guide for all teachers, specially those who are trying to support students but don't know how to navigate the MLs and their unique needs.
04:22:54	Christina M.:	I think that heterogeneous groups require some coaching for all involved - and this may be more effective with older students (I’m a middle / high school person).
04:23:00	Debby Maatta:	I’d like to try using more heterogeneous groups with the addition of roles for individual members of the group to be sure that each students has an important contribution to make.
04:23:04	Rebecca Wilner:	Reacted to "I think that heterog..." with 👍
04:23:05	Mason Bosley:	I like the idea of playing to students' strengths when forming groups; it is so important to give students opportunities to feel competent.
04:23:07	Francesca Smith:	Reacted to "I think that heterog..." with 👍
04:23:18	Ashley Gutierrez:	I want to try grouping EMLs with English proficient students to work on unit vocabulary. I think they’d be a great model for EMLs
04:23:18	Francesca Smith:	Reacted to "I’d like to try usin..." with 👍
04:23:42	Rebecca Wilner:	I also think the age of students impact which kinds of groups are most successful
04:23:50	Christina M.:	I also think that as long as students have choice for some activities (ex. SEL), you will have more success with structured / teacher designed groups.
04:23:53	Jhorman Cantillo:	Grouping should be beneficial for both learning and teaching. It should facilitate growth.
04:25:18	Francesca Smith:	Reacted to "I like the idea of p..." with 👍
04:25:23	Francesca Smith:	Reacted to "I want to try groupi..." with 👍
04:27:35	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Access Document 9 in the Google folder here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1GyJ9-HpumpiiGyteNNB5_O90Tc5zfI1Rba2s3kZ4Hjs/edit?usp=drive_link 
Explore the examples of scaffolds on each slide. See notes for specifics about certain scaffolds individually.  Write a comment next to two scaffolds using the comment feature. 
1.     A scaffold you use regularly. Explain how you use it. 
2.     A scaffold that you would like to try, a scaffold you have a question about, or a scaffold you would like to use more effectively. ***
04:28:36	Deena Marshall (SupportEd):	Reacted to "I also think that as..." with 👍🏼
04:28:42	Deena Marshall (SupportEd):	Reacted to "I also think the age..." with 👍🏼
04:28:47	Deena Marshall (SupportEd):	Reacted to "Grouping should be b..." with 👍🏼
04:34:44	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	*** Meet in breakout rooms. Discuss your takeaways: Which scaffolds did you select? Why? How could you use a gallery walk in your context? ***
04:43:52	Debby Maatta:	Will we see examples of amplified texts and learn how to use them with students who do not have literacy skills in their home language (If that is appropriate) later in the session?
04:45:14	Jess R:	YUP this is my problem
04:45:16	Megan Belser:	Will we see examples of amplified texts and learn how to use them with students who do not have literacy skills in their home language (If that is appropriate) later in the session?
Yes! I need this as well. As very curious to hear your opinion about building literacy in L1 vs. L2 (assuming limited literacy in both)
04:45:37	Jess R:	agree with literacy in L1 question
04:46:16	Jess R:	And if anyone has ANY ideas about where to get specific Spanish phonics training, me and a few teachers are looking for options
04:48:33	Meghan Gregoire-Smith (SupportEd):	https://www.colorincolorado.org/teaching-ells/ell-classroom-strategy-library/text-engineering
04:48:45	Christina M.:	@Jess R if you message me your email, I can connect you with the teacher here in our program who teachers foundational Spanish literacy and you can ask about resources - we ordered a lot last year but I can’t remember all of it.
04:48:46	Francesca Smith:	Replying to "And if anyone has AN..."

feel free to send me an email and I can help brainstorm with you! I've heard this come up from several schools Francesca.smith@dc.gov
04:49:01	Francesca Smith:	Reacted to "@Jess R if you messa..." with ❤️
04:50:55	gabriela.ramirez:	I do reteach in their native language to clarify misunderstandings. Especially when I explain Grammar rules. I teach ESL
04:51:05	Meghan Gregoire-Smith (SupportEd):	Reacted to "I do reteach in thei..." with 👍🏼
04:51:10	angelica.carranza:	Reacted to "I do reteach in thei..." with 👍
04:51:14	Francesca Smith:	Reacted to "I do reteach in thei..." with 👍
04:52:40	Valentina Maza:	How can we assess how advanced in they are in their home language?
04:55:15	Jess R:	if it's Spanish, we have several diagnostics. If it's another language, I also have that question
04:55:43	Brian Swift:	would it be possible to have access to the spanish diagnositic resources?
04:56:02	Christina M.:	I like when students toggle between languages, pulling from the L1 when stuck in the L2 - it was really powerful when I was working in dual language and it was part of the culture… here in a more traditional ML learning space, I find that it can lead to students wanting to use L1 all the time and it can become challenging
04:56:09	Jess R:	Yes, I will have to get them from another teacher. If you are in DCPS, LAD has them
04:56:17	Jess R:	STAR is also a test we use
04:56:25	Christina M.:	Reacted to "STAR is also a test ..." with 👍🏾
04:56:28	Jess R:	yes that's part of LAD
04:56:47	holly cobb:	Reacted to "I like when students..." with 👍
04:57:49	Libby Nutting:	I think having a central place with this information would be super helpful— as far as I know there isn’t an easy way to check if students have limited formal education either (obviously we can ask students and families, but it would be helpful to share that data in one place easily, along with literacy in L1)
04:58:06	Sarah White- DC Public Schools:	We use DIBELS and Lectura simultaneously for k-2, super helpful
04:58:45	alejandro.gomez:	Reacted to "I think having a cen..." with 👍
04:58:46	Debby Maatta:	I found this phonics survey in Spanish (you see it after the English assessment) https://www.scusd.edu/sites/main/files/file-attachments/bpst_ii-3rd.pdf
04:59:25	Christina M.:	Last year we did a pilot with 1st language intervention for Spanish speaking students (2-3x weekly - foundational literacy) and 7 of 9 students showed ACCESS score growth (.25 to .9), growth varied… but students (ours are older) were less than keen - they didn’t fully trust the transfer.
04:59:42	Debby Maatta:	Reacted to "Last year we did a p..." with 👍🏼
04:59:59	holly cobb:	Reacted to "Last year we did a p..." with 👍
05:00:13	Sarah White- DC Public Schools:	Replying to "Last year we did a p..."

Can you share what the pilot was?
05:00:30	Debby Maatta:	Replying to "Last year we did a p..."

Christina, where do you teach?  I would love to hear more about that.  Thanks!
05:01:20	Christina M.:	Replying to "Last year we did a p..."

Teacher developed SLIFE intervention in Spanish - teacher’s name is Silvana Salazar and she has a process
05:01:24	Francesca Smith:	Francesca.smith@dc.gov
05:01:35	heidi.sterling:	Reacted to "Teacher developed SL..." with ❤️
05:02:04	heidi.sterling:	Replying to "Last year we did a p..."

Yay, Ms. Salazar! We used to work together.
05:02:25	Sarah White- DC Public Schools:	Reacted to "Teacher developed SL..." with ❤️
05:02:27	Francesca Smith:	Reacted to "Teacher developed SL..." with ❤️
05:02:29	Jess R:	Replying to "Last year we did a p..."

Haha we did too.  She was at MacFarland before she went to Rose
05:02:32	Deena Marshall (SupportEd):	Reacted to "Last year we did a p..." with 👍🏼
05:03:21	Christina M.:	Replying to "Last year we did a p..."

Here’s the breakdown: SLIFE INTERVENTION PROCEDURES.pptm
05:03:33	Christina M.:	Reacted to "Yay, Ms. Salazar! We..." with 🧡
05:03:40	Christina M.:	Reacted to "Haha we did too.  Sh..." with 🧡
05:04:29	holly cobb:	Scenario 2
05:04:44	Maria Silva:	Scenario 2
05:04:45	Christina M.:	Scenario 2
05:04:53	Maria Molina:	Scenario 2
05:04:54	Sara Gutiérrez:	Scenario 2
05:04:55	Keila Gutierrez:	Scenario 2
05:04:59	thakiya.ismael:	Scenario 2
05:05:01	Rebecca Wilner:	Scenario 2
05:05:01	Tara Williams:	Scenario 2
05:05:05	Debby Maatta:	Scenario 2
05:05:07	Ashley Gutierrez:	2
05:05:08	jazzae.puyol:	2
05:05:08	Jhorman Cantillo:	Scenario 2
05:05:09	Sandra.Garcia-Pinill:	Scenario 2
05:05:23	heidi.sterling:	bilingual glossary > Google translate
05:05:59	Libby Nutting:	Scenario 2 also supports students who have limited literacy in their L1
05:06:02	Jess R:	I do love that in scenario 2 they still have opportunity to express themselves in L1
05:06:17	holly cobb:	Reacted to "I do love that in sc..." with 👍
05:07:31	Sarah White- DC Public Schools:	Reacted to "Here’s the breakdown..." with ❤️
05:07:34	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Back at 1.47***
05:07:35	Sarah White- DC Public Schools:	Replying to "Last year we did a p..."

Thank you!!!
05:18:31	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Access the direct link to this resource on the padlet here: https://padlet.com/diane30/osse-supporting-students-with-limited-or-interrupted-formal--i65l7kkmh8a0tab4/wish/kxodWGe5epeEQgP7 ***
05:19:52	Francesca Smith:	This isn't OSSE related, but the DC Reading League is hosting literacy-related events focused on adolescent literacy/literacy intervention this school year. Feel free to sign up for the membership list to get notifications about those events: Join The Reading League (TRL) - D.C. Chapter
05:20:11	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Access Document 10a in the Google folder here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aeHBJ8B1iwyGUD6NNIXYRzNjOrQWdZ_9/view?usp=drive_link 
Select one particular SLIFE student you are currently teaching. Use this form to gather information on this student. Share the form and information with a colleague. ***
05:20:48	Deena Marshall (SupportEd):	I second Francesca's comment about the DC Reading League.  I've attended a couple of their events and they are great!
05:21:08	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Access Document 10b in the Google folder here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/14a5aB6IrG8OYkrec0FLcAeLdQ6BkwEPr/view?usp=drive_link ***
05:22:17	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Access Document 10c in the Google folder here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/16PySmAsVRqqhd8FLIS5vRVCRkPYFCZL2/view?usp=drive_link ***
05:23:06	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Access Document 10d in the Google folder here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ejKDODNDIl1lDdaqiyo8bujKOuCwnTlN/view?usp=drive_link ***
05:23:44	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Access Document 10e in the Google folder here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZipjIrqxYjSYoGpJMlS847o241iy1ekv/view?usp=drive_link ***
05:24:37	JVS:	Wow, great formats and process steps.
05:24:48	Jairo Evangelista Agudelo:	Reacted to "Wow, great formats..." with 👍
05:25:03	Jairo Evangelista Agudelo:	Reacted to "***Access Document..." with 👍
05:25:33	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Access Document 10f in the Google folder here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GMmOWCz8Jf-cjlRusgOrYfD1_FELsq-y/view?usp=drive_link ***
05:26:07	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Individually review the tools to support planning scaffolded units for SLIFE students. Consider how you might use these tools in your context. ***
05:26:18	Megan Belser:	Thank you Francesca, I just signed up. I am in need of guidance around when and how to teach my SLIFE students how to read. I am a HS ELA teacher, but do not have training in teaching phonics / phonemic awareness / etc. Is this the kind of resource that would help?
05:33:23	angelica.carranza:	some more minutes please!
05:33:25	Francesca Smith:	Replying to "Thank you Francesca,..."

but on the OSSE end I'm looking into hosting a community of practice for secondary teachers on the foundations of phonics/phonemic awareness/etc., particularly for multilingual learners...and also give space for teachers from different schools to share ideas with each other.... so stay tuned! definitely let me know any specific topics etc. you'd like to learn about or if that sounds like it would be useful!
05:36:01	Maria Molina:	Reacted to "I love the list of s..." with ❤️
05:36:18	Megan Belser:	It's mostly researcher talks and community of practice events. the speaker in February for example is a special education professor (Jade Wexler | UMD College of Education) who focuses on adolescent learners in need of reading intervention...so might be of interest to you!
Thanks! This sounds great! And thank you also for the community of practice for secondary teachers. I will email you with some needs and topics- definitely useful!
05:36:41	Megan Belser:	Reacted to "@Megan Belser, fee..." with ❤️
05:36:45	Francesca Smith:	Reacted to "@Megan Belser, feel ..." with ❤️
05:36:56	Deena Marshall (SupportEd):	Reacted to "I plan to use 10a — ..." with ❤️
05:36:58	Brian Swift:	Reacted to "but on the OSSE en..." with 👍
05:36:59	Meghan Gregoire-Smith (SupportEd):	Reacted to "I plan to use 10a — ..." with ❤️
05:37:23	JVS:	The objectives section for all the work for SLIFE implies that a STANDARD is being used for the CONTENT and LANGUAGE objective.  This can be confusing for new teachers with not a breadth of knowledge or skill.
05:37:29	Sandra.Garcia-Pinill:	I loved the Suggested Scaffolds at Each Proficiency Level. I wonder how many of them are enough without overwhelming my students.
05:38:08	JVS:	The 10 b and 10 a are great!  I would add a bit more on reflection.
05:38:23	Francesca Smith:	Replying to "Thank you Francesca,..."

Helen is awesome! They just expanded to middle school this year and are adapting their elementary reading model. Claire Sontag at the clinic also has a ton of knowledge around both Spanish and English foundational literacy!
05:38:35	Francesca Smith:	Reacted to "It's mostly research..." with ❤️
05:38:42	Deena Marshall (SupportEd):	Replying to "I loved the Suggeste..."

You could slowly introduce them one at a time and also remove some as their skill mastery increases.  Also ask them if that scaffold is helpful or not.
05:38:46	Jess R:	Reacted to "Helen is awesome! Th..." with ❤️
05:38:54	Deena Marshall (SupportEd):	Reacted to "The 10 b and 10 a ar..." with 👍🏼
05:38:59	holly cobb:	I like the tool in 10b for Increasing Academic Language Awareness. Could defifinitely help with co-planning.
05:39:15	Deena Marshall (SupportEd):	Reacted to "I like the tool in 1..." with 👍🏼
05:39:22	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	Reacted to "I like the tool in 1..." with 👍🏼
05:39:31	Deena Marshall (SupportEd):	Replying to "I like the tool in 1..."

I wish I had this tool when I was a co-teacher!
05:39:41	Maria Molina:	Reacted to "I like the tool in 1..." with ❤️
05:39:48	holly cobb:	Reacted to "I wish I had this to..." with 👍
05:40:10	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Access the direct link to this resource on the padlet here: https://padlet.com/diane30/osse-supporting-students-with-limited-or-interrupted-formal--i65l7kkmh8a0tab4/wish/PR3NWxbyXmqLQb0O ***
05:40:12	JVS:	The Reflecting tool is fantastic!
05:40:27	Deena Marshall (SupportEd):	Reacted to "The Reflecting tool ..." with ❤️
05:40:53	heidi.sterling:	Reacted to "but on the OSSE end ..." with ❤️
05:41:00	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Access the forced copy link to Document 11 in the Google folder here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1v5m7y6C805YcaLVt7B1nmPx3vOTR7-LbfgirBV5y7S4/copy 
Self-select a breakout room that matches your grade band. Open the SLIFE Scaffolding Case Studies. Select the scenario that corresponds to your grade band. Read the description of the task and the details about one SLIFE student in the class and discuss with your group. Complete the Scaffolded Instruction Planning Template. Be prepared to share your thoughts with the whole group. ***
05:42:47	Francesca Smith:	I have a few copies of SupportEd's Unlocking Multilingual Learners' potential text at the OSSE office (sadly not the newly updated version!)--if anyone's interested I could probably get a copy to folks. Lots of practical examples and tools in it!
05:43:12	Deena Marshall (SupportEd):	Reacted to "I have a few copies ..." with ❤️
05:43:15	heidi.sterling:	Reacted to "I have a few copies ..." with ❤️
05:43:28	heidi.sterling:	Replying to "I have a few copies ..."

I'm interested!
05:44:10	alejandro.gomez:	Reacted to "I have a few copies ..." with 👍
05:44:47	Meghan Gregoire-Smith (SupportEd):	https://padlet.com/diane30/osse-supporting-students-with-limited-or-interrupted-formal--i65l7kkmh8a0tab4/wish/PR3NWxbyXmqLQb0O
05:55:13	Christina M.:	High school group here’s link if you want to add: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13YXKQ3cWyd_wgP7PfCkdx7lN_lVzGNre0jRMR8l_wPM/edit?usp=sharing
05:55:29	Meghan Gregoire-Smith (SupportEd):	Reacted to "High school group he..." with 👍🏼
05:55:49	Francesca Smith:	Replying to "I have a few copies ..."

what school are you at Heidi?
05:55:52	Alea Rubin-Evens:	Here is my group’s doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OZgYWJqNcPXZ34EpHVR6S-8KcLQtc-rcZEP82wKlOIM/edit?tab=t.0
05:56:04	Deena Marshall (SupportEd):	Reacted to "Here is my group’s d..." with 👍🏼
05:56:20	Deena Marshall (SupportEd):	Reacted to "High school group he..." with 👍🏼
06:00:20	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Access the forced copy link to Document 12a in the Google folder here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QOeOVOrDEV1qPD2x8EOEhwpwL_48DMilvUqf6GsL6e8/copy 
Review an upcoming unit that you will use with SLIFE students. Complete the “Unit Overview”, “Unit Preparation”, and “Scaffolding Academic Content” portions of the plan (pages 1 and 2). Decide whether you will plan individually or collaboratively with a colleague. Be prepared to share takeaways from your planning with the large group. ***
06:00:48	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Access the forced copy link to Document 12b in the Google folder here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ER2piTcltCL9NTwTbUNs0HGYlh7rufQi-5tmniuMTNg/copy 
Plan your beginning steps for bringing the learning back to your school or the teachers you work with. Decide whether you will plan individually or collaboratively with a colleague. Be prepared to share takeaways from your planning with the large group. ***
06:01:11	Tara Williams:	Replying to "I have a few copies ..."

I would like a copy.
06:01:47	iPhone (103):	Thanks!
06:02:12	Francesca Smith:	Replying to "I have a few copies ..."

what school are you at Tara?
06:02:28	Valentina Maza:	Replying to "I have a few copies ..."

I’d love one too!
06:02:46	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Access the forced copy link to Document 12a in the Google folder here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QOeOVOrDEV1qPD2x8EOEhwpwL_48DMilvUqf6GsL6e8/copy 
Review an upcoming unit that you will use with SLIFE students. Complete the “Unit Overview”, “Unit Preparation”, and “Scaffolding Academic Content” portions of the plan (pages 1 and 2). Decide whether you will plan individually or collaboratively with a colleague. Be prepared to share takeaways from your planning with the large group. ***
06:02:57	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Access the forced copy link to Document 12b in the Google folder here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ER2piTcltCL9NTwTbUNs0HGYlh7rufQi-5tmniuMTNg/copy 
Plan your beginning steps for bringing the learning back to your school or the teachers you work with. Decide whether you will plan individually or collaboratively with a colleague. Be prepared to share takeaways from your planning with the large group. ***
06:03:06	Holly Heller-Schwartz:	I'd love a copy too, thanks!
06:03:41	Tara Williams:	Replying to "I have a few copies ..."

AppleTree
06:23:14	Francesca Smith:	Reacted to "@Francesca Smith, Ro..." with 👍
06:23:19	Francesca Smith:	Reacted to "Interested. Eastern ..." with 👍
06:24:50	Tara Williams:	Reacted to "There are a number o..." with 👍🏾
06:24:57	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	*** Please provide us anonymous feedback with a brief evaluation.  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfYMCa6bsDQ2Ly85igN2djy9ag3pNRykFV2mJlgv48P66Vw4A/viewform ***
06:25:36	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	*** Please provide us anonymous feedback with a brief evaluation.  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfYMCa6bsDQ2Ly85igN2djy9ag3pNRykFV2mJlgv48P66Vw4A/viewform ***
06:28:14	Jasmine Singh, SupportEd:	***Please feel free to reach out to Meghan at Meghan@SupportEd.com and Deena at marshadee@gmail.com ***
06:28:33	Maria Molina:	Thank you!!! See you tomorrow!
06:28:48	holly cobb:	Reacted to "Thank you!!! See you..." with ❤️
06:28:58	alejandro.gomez:	Thank you.
06:29:01	Debby Maatta:	Thank you!
06:29:05	Rebecca Wilner:	The chat archive would be great! Thanks!
06:29:06	Deena Marshall (SupportEd):	Thank you all for joining us today!
06:29:07	gabriela.ramirez:	Thank you so much, see you tomorrow!
06:29:14	thakiya.ismael:	Thank you have a good day!
06:29:18	Francesca Smith:	Thank you all for being here! Again my email is Francesca.smith@dc.gov if y'all have any questions for me!
06:29:19	Jorge Linero:	Thank you!
06:29:21	Keila Gutierrez:	Thank you!
06:29:21	Rebecca Wilner:	Thanks very much! Excellent workshop!
06:29:23	Jhorman Cantillo:	Thank you so much
06:29:27	Mrs. Seppa:	thank you!
06:29:27	Sandra.Garcia-Pinill:	Thank you so much
06:29:31	heidi.sterling:	Thank you so much! We need and deeply appreciate this training!

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RUBIN - 12a. Unit Planning for SLIFE Students

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Teacher Leader Planning -- Wilner (Browne EC)

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Teacher Leader Planning -- Wilner (Browne EC)

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Maatta. Unit Planning for SLIFE Students

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Agudelo 6th SS 12a. Unit Planning for SLIFE Students.docx

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Sterling 12b. Teacher Leader Planning Template

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Sandra Garcia- CHEC- Teacher Leader Planning Template

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Sandra Garcia- CHEC- Teacher Leader Planning Template

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Sandra Garcia- CHEC- Teacher Leader Planning Template

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Newcomer/Beginner ELA - Highschool - Swift

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Newcomer/Beginner ELA - Highschool - Swift

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The admin group talked a lot about the parallels between supporting SLIFE / SIFE students and other students in a program where there may be pressure from faculty for translated materials or to differentiate their materials without really considering that all their students have diverse needs and it's part of the work to adapt and modify.

Some concrete ideas we came up with:

Offering PLC around making materials accessible for MLLs & SIFE / SLIFE students; adjusting LEAP offerings (allowing teachers who want to to opt into a SIFE / SLIFE PLC).

We also talked about the schoolwide benefits of assets based mindset for an entire school and comes from school leadership ...

Also noted parallels between what we learned over last 2 days and UDL.

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MB 4G - Persuasive Writing SLIFE Planning

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PK3 Unit Planning for SLIFE Students (A.Gutierrez)

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ELA 4 ( 12 grade) - Slam Poetry Planning

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ELA 4 ( 12 grade) - Slam Poetry Planning

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12a. Unit Planning for SLIFE Students.docx

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This was an awesome PD. The resources and content were much needed.

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Copy of 12a. Unit Planning for SLIFE Students.docx

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Dual Language History (High School)- Nutting CHEC

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Dual Language History (High School)- Nutting CHEC

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Copy of 12a. Unit Planning for SLIFE Students

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12b. Teacher Leader Planning Draft_VIALPAND) DAY 2 .docx

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VIALPANDO --Student Leadership with STAFF committee to WELCOME & Check SLIFE 

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VIALPANDO --Student Leadership with STAFF committee to WELCOME & Check SLIFE 

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12b. Teacher Leader Planning Draft_VIALPAND) DAY 2 

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Mr. Donnell's 12.b Teacher Leader Panning Activity

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Mr. Donnell's 12.b Teacher Leader Panning Activity

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This was an exemplary learning experience and a master class on how to integrate best practices for adult learning to meet the needs of those of us who service SLIFE/EL students!

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Mr. Donnell's 12b. Teacher Leader Planning Template 12.5.24