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Hi.  This is my 18th year of teaching, and my first year as an EL teacher at Portlock.  I have taught 1st grade, preschool and been part of the Chesapeake Preschool Initiative at Georgetown Primary for the past nine years.  Portlock is such a loving school filled with dedicated teachers and I am very excited to have the opportunity to work with them and all of the students and families in this wonderful community.

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Hello,

This is my 6th year teaching at Portlock. I have taught 1st and 2nd grade here and kindergarten in other districts. Even though I have had the privilege of having English language learners in my classes for as long as I have been a teacher, this is my 1st year only teaching English. I am very excited to be working with this team and our students at Portlock!

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The Language Group is a local company through which we can request a translator to come on-site to help with in-person translating. This service will be useful for many situations, like parent-teacher conferences or IEP meetings.

Click here to complete the Google Form to request a translator. Be sure place your request 2-3 business days ahead of time.

Please let the EL team know if you have any questions about this service.

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Google Forms - create and analyze surveys, for free.

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Get to Know your Newcomer Families- Questionnaire 

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Get to Know your Newcomer Families- Questionnaire 

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Take the opportunity to learn more about newcomer families’ languages, religions, countries of origin, and living circumstances will help you understand the educational needs of your newcomer family.  Immigrant parents who were educated in another country may have a different concept of how school should work, and they are often learning about U.S society (including structures of race and racism) for the first time.

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Eight Ways to Scaffold Writing for English Learners

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Eight Ways to Scaffold Writing for English Learners

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Click here to read the article by Valentina Gonzalez

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Four Ways to Promote Speaking with English Learners 

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Four Ways to Promote Speaking with English Learners 

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Click here to read more.

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Knowing the connections between Spanish and English sounds can elevate your phonics.

How English sounds are made: The characteristics of sound creation (consonants and vowels) can be helpful when understanding mispronunciations and when teaching new distinct sounds to ELLs.  Consider the different parts of the vocal tract used to make sounds in English and the different sounds of other languages in relation to English, on this site:

Phonetics: The Sounds of Spoken Language

Connections between English & Spanish sounds: A teacher can help Spanish speakers to learn English sounds by making connections with similar sounds in Spanish and explicitly teach distinct English sounds using the appropriate mouth formation for accurate pronunciation.

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A tool to help you meet students where they are in their language development.

Each grade level is linked to document.

Grade K

Grade 1

Grades 2-3

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Language Line is a service provided to the district to help you with interpreter needs. This service can be used for parent-teacher conferences, by phone, or in person.

Click here for steps in using Language Line ON DEMAND.

Please feel free to reach out to us with questions, or leave a comment below.

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What are BICS and CALP?

The acronyms BICS and CALP refer to the length of time required by immigrant children to develop conversational skills in the target language and grade appropriate academic proficiency in that language. Understanding the difference between social language and academic language acquisition is an important concept for teachers working with non-native students. Learn more in our academic language resource section.

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6 Ways to Accommodate Instruction for ELs

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This is a great resource that has multiple links on how to support New Comers and beginning English Learners. Please click here for the link.

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Tip #4

Thinking Maps are visual aids to help scaffold students’ reading, writing, listening, and speaking activities. They support students in understanding demanding cognitive and linguistic tasks.

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Tip #3
Using sentence starters or frames can provide a scaffold to students' responses in speaking or writing. They provide a model of how words and phrases should look in a logical context. Using sentence starters or frames have been shown to be effective in writing fluency and speaking. Click here to see some examples.

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Book: The ELL Teacher's Toolbox by Ferlazzo and Sypnieski (2018)

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Book: The ELL Teacher's Toolbox by Ferlazzo and Sypnieski (2018)

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This book offers teachers a practical research-based guide to the instructional strategies that are appropriate for all students learning English. It includes 45 strategies that are designed to help students move forward academically.
Click here to learn more.

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Writer's Checklist for EL 1st and 2nd graders

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Writer's Checklist for EL 1st and 2nd graders

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C6pCSB5s1vCGsqiYGCATsuMZRnnaEyQvFoXkMwH7Wlg/edit?usp=sharing

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Copy of 1st and 2nd Grade Narrative Writing Checklist

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Book: Reading and Writing with English Learners (2020) by Gonzalez and Miller

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Book: Reading and Writing with English Learners (2020) by Gonzalez and Miller

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Reading & Writing with English Learners offers kindergarten through fifth grade reading and writing educators a user-friendly guide and framework for supporting English learners in balanced literacy classrooms.
This book offers strategies that can be used with the CPS literacy framework. It does talk about using the "Workshop" model for Reading and Writing, but the strategies can be implemented in any ELA framework.  Click on the link below to learn more.

https://www.readingwritingels.com/the-book

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Tip #2:
Visuals are helpful for EL students because they reduce anxiety when learning a new language and allow students to make connections with their native language.

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Tip #1:

For beginning readers: Use active learning strategies, such as jumping jacks while reading sight words, jumping on one foot while spelling new words, or using your arm to tap the letter sounds and blend a word as shown in this video. Using Arms as Visuals

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The Language Group is available to all CPS staff to request translation of a document.

Click here to complete the Google Form and upload the document you would like translated. Please be sure to place your request early enough- about 3 days, at least.

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Google Forms - create and analyze surveys, for free.

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Hello!

This is my fourth year as an EL instructor at Portlock. My bachelor's is in Early Childhood Education and I taught English to 3rd graders in Mexico City for my student teaching. I taught preschool for 2 years in Cincinnati before getting my master's degree in Teaching English as a Second Language. I am excited to have another wonderful year at a wonderful school with a wonderful team.

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Hi. This is my first year as an EL teacher but my 27th year teaching. I was previously at SEE as a third grade teacher and prior to that at GRP as a second grade teacher. I hope to help my students assimilate to their new surroundings and feel valued and loved.

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I am an EL Teacher at Portlock. This is my fifth year of teaching. I graduated in the spring of 2020 from Christopher Newport University with my Master's in ESL. I feel so blessed that I get to work with such amazing students, families, and staff members each day!